With the first meeting of the "hook up Blake and Ayame" club having ended, it's time for everyone to head home. It's the first night back at the Pokemon Academy for our main characters! But Sango's going to spend her first night back in a different way… taking the first step in her own plans for Ayame and Blake, that is!

KedharS: Doesn't it always?

Hyphenman: Interesting theories as always!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1253

"Excuse me, Olivia?" Sango stopped Olivia as they all went their separate ways.

"Yeah, what is it?" Olivia asked, raising her eyebrow. She could see the unease on Sango's face, which was to be expected. She'd just made it back home, and had a major life-changing situation dumped in her lap that she hadn't had to deal with the day before.

Sango fidgeted, her uneasiness not getting better. But she needed to spit it out. "It's… about Ayame," she whispered.

"I figured. What about her?"

"Would it be alright… if I talked to her?" Sango asked. "Just for a little while, tonight! Please… it's really important…"

Olivia sighed, playing with a lock of her hair. "Look, if all you need is me letting you into the building, then yeah, sure, we can do that. But getting that girl to talk is another matter altogether." Ayame wasn't known for being excessively chatty, even after Blake had helped her open up more. Olivia didn't know how she'd be without those memoires of his.

"I don't care about that," Sango said, shaking her head. "I just want to give it a chance, please. There's something I need to say to her."

But then, Sango was still her friend. And she was close to Blake. There was a chance that her presence might jog something loose for Ayame. With that in mind, Olivia gave her blessing and led the other girl across campus, to her dorm.

When Sango actually got to Ayame's door, though, her resolve wavered. She wasn't sure she should do this. In her head, she knew Ayame was her friend. And yet the cold way she'd treated Blake at the beginning gave her pause. What if she reacted that way with her? She had a lot of pleasant memories of Ayame, the times they ran together, when they consoled each other over their feelings for Blake, those were all precious things to her.

What if Olivia was wrong? What if Ayame's memories were so twisted and warped by what had happened to her that she couldn't remember Sango either? She was pretty sure that "Psychic type pokemon erased her memories" story was a lie, but what had really happened? Why did Ayame lose her memories?

She shook her head. No, she couldn't worry about this now. She just needed to be bold and say hello, that's all!

Sango had just about gotten the courage to knock on the door when Olivia called out to her from across the hall, snapping her concentration like a twig.

"Well, good luck with that, I'm going to bed."

"…Good night…" Sango was fuming. She glanced at Silver who nodded adamantly at her, and then she took a deep breath, regaining her focus.

She knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Ayame grumbled from the other side. Sango tensed. She sounded upset. Maybe… maybe this wasn't the best idea…

No, that's coward talk! Sango chastised herself, shaking her head. Ayame's nice, just say hello! Do it, you idiot!

"A-Ayame?" Sango croaked out. "Can… can we talk?"

Silence came from the other side of the door.

"…Sango? That you?" She sounded closer this time, which was a good thing. Instead of sprawled out on the bed, that meant she'd actually come to the door, right?

"Y-Yes! It's me!" Sango said, nodding rapidly even though Ayame couldn't see her. "I just… I wanted to see you. We didn't get a time to talk on the docks, so…"

Mentally, Sango slapped herself. What the hell was she thinking, bringing that up?! Ayame had run away in embarrassment, and bringing back those memories would just cause her to shut down all over again. "I-I mean-"

Before Sango had the chance to bury her foot even deeper into her mouth, Ayame opened the door with a creek, staring down at her. She felt her body visibly relax as she saw the tomboy's hazel-gold eyes, even if they did look sterner than she remembered.

In fact, Ayame's entire expression looked dour. She seemed on edge, for some reason.

"…You're alone, right?" Ayame asked, peeking her head out the door and scanning the hallway, as if she expected Blake to come popping out at any moment. "You and Silver, I mean."

"…Oh! Uh… yes?" Sango offered weakly. She had no idea what she was doing; of course she was alone, so why did she sound so confused.

Ayame took one last glance around the hall, making sure that Blake wasn't here, and then stepped back and invited her in.

"I'd offer you something to drink, but all I've got is water," Ayame said, kicking the mini-fridge next to the bed. "Didn't want anything to go bad while I was gone."

"Water will be just fine!" Sango said, taking one of the bottles. She noted there was no food in the refrigerator either, much to her chagrin. Dinner had been far from filling.

"So, uh… what do you want?" Ayame asked awkwardly. It was a side from her Sango wasn't used to seeing on her own; usually, Ayame was only embarrassed when it came to Blake.

But then… that's what this was all about, wasn't it?

"I just… I wanted to talk to you about Blake," Sango said weakly, wincing as she saw Ayame's expression change.

"…You too, huh? Fuuuuuuck…" Ayame groaned, slumping back into bed and staring up at the ceiling. "You and the boss, man, come on. Why do we have to talk about that guy?" She didn't even want to say his name.

"…Because 'that guy' is important," Sango said. "He's important to me. And even if you can't remember him, he's important to you, too."

Ayame made a sour expression. "I just can't stand it," she muttered, turning over so she wouldn't have to look Sango in the eye. "These feelings, all these mushy memories, they just feel so wrong! Like… why was I even wearing a dress?!"

"…Because you looked good in it?" Sango asked enviously. She hardly ever looked good in dresses. And even then, only when she put an absurd amount of makeup on. Both she and Ayame were cursed with looking like boys. But where for Ayame it was a charm point due to her handsome features, Sango was much more awkwardly masculine; the kind of boyish girl who got made fun of, and-

Wait, she was getting off topic. This wasn't the time to languish about her past, she needed to focus on the future.

Blake and Ayame's future, to be specific.

Ayame sat up in bed, still making that sour expression. "It feels wrong," she muttered. "So fucking wrong. I just… I mean…"

Sango saw a flash of weakness in the other girl's eye. She took the chance to close the distance between the two of them, sitting down beside her.

"What's wrong about it?" She asked.

"Everything!" Ayame sputtered. "But mainly… just… I'm not supposed to feel like this! It feels all gross! I mean…"

She sighed.

"…I used to want to be a princess, you know that?"

Sango blinked. The image of Ayame as a princess…

She tried very hard not to laugh. That would have been rude.

"A princess? Really?" Sango asked cautiously, trying not to make it sound like a joke. Silver floated over and rested beside her, a source of moral comfort in this awkward atmosphere.

"You can laugh if you want, it's a joke, right? Me, a princess?" Ayame laughed bitterly. "But no, I'm the kind of girl who only played a tree in her school plays, not the princess."

"…I'm sorry," Sango said, not sure what else to do. She patted Ayame's hand. "That must have been very rough for you."

"Whatever, I'm fine with it," Ayame said, pulling her hand away. "Besides, look at me, I'm pretty handsome now! Forget playing the princess, I'd make a decent prince!"

Sango knew there was more to it than that, but she didn't say anything. She let Ayame say the words for herself.

"I always thought that I wasn't suited to wear pretty dresses and be girly," Ayame grumbled. "I had to devote myself to sports and work out. But then… I saw that dress. In my closet." She nodded over to her closet. "It just looked so beautiful. And I can see myself in the mirror, wearing it, and yet… why would I do that? Why would I want to dress up like that, if the only thing I really care about is competing in Pokeathlons?"

Sango didn't say anything, but she knew the answer. And she knew Ayame knew it, too.

"…It's because of him, isn't it?" Ayame muttered. "Because I fell in love with him. That's why I had that urge to look pretty, why there's so much fucking stuff in my room to get me nervous and make me want to throw up."

"…I-I guess so," Sango nodded. "…Wait, throw up?"

"Yeah," Ayame said. "See, when I get nervous and anxious, my stomach gets all twisted up in knots and then before I know it, it's puke city."

Sango found that image revolting. But then, she'd trained her body until she'd thrown up many times in the past, so it wasn't really her place to judge Ayame and her life choices, was it?

"You know, right before you guys arrived, I puked my guts out?" Ayame said, turning to Sango. She was shocked.

"R-Really?"

"Yup. Just 'SPLAT' right into the ocean. It was sickening."

"I'm sure Marion must have loved that," Sango chuckled, trying to lighten the mood again.

"It was just… I was nervous. My body got nervous, because… because I was going to see him. And I didn't know what to do…"

She still wasn't saying his name. To Sango it seemed like she was incapable of it. She sighed, not sure what to do or say.

"And then," Ayame continued, "when he was saying all that stuff about making me fall in love… it was too much, you know? I couldn't handle that shit! Here's a guy I don't remember one bit, coming onto me like that and telling me he's in love with me?! That he's gonna make me fall in love with him?! Who does that?!"

Blake. Blake does that, Sango thought, feeling a little sad. If it was for Ayame, Blake would do just about anything.

Ayame sighed. "I couldn't handle it. So I ran. And I just… I threw up again. A lot, really, once I got back to my room. I just don't know what to do, Sango. I have all these memories of me hanging out with you guys, having fun, and yet… there's a part of it that's missing! I know there is, but it just won't fit into place! It's like having a puzzle and you're missing a piece, you know?!"

"Yeah, I know," Sango nodded. "And I also know what that piece is. And I think you do, too, right Ayame?" She asked quietly.

This was it. The moment of truth. Either Ayame would accept what she said with honesty, or she would get angry and lash out. Either way, it was a turning point for the conversation.

"…Yeah," Ayame admitted, curling up into a ball and burying her face in her knees. "Yeah, I do."

Sango sighed, wincing at the sight of her friend in this state. This was really bothering her, and how could it not? They were talking about Ayame's memories here, part of the fundamental thing that made her who she was. And somehow, one of the most important parts of her had just been cut out, like it had never been there at all.

It wasn't fair.

Sango pressed on. "So… why don't you just give it a chance? Maybe you could fall in love with Blake again!"

"I don't want that, though," she said, her voice just barely a whisper. "I don't want to fall in love with him. I don't want to be with him."

"…You did once," Sango said, placing her hand on Ayame's shoulder. "You can't do it again?"

Ayame shook her head, smearing her tears over her knees.

Sango sighed. Well, there was no sense in putting it off, then. She was going to have this confrontation eventually. It was the whole reason she came here, after all, to make her intentions clear. And if Ayame wasn't interested in letting Blake back into her life, then Sango wasn't going to let a little memory loss get in her way.

"Then can I go out with him?"

The question hung in the air like an ominous fog. Ayame's head snapped up and she stared wide-eyed at Sango, not sure what to make of what the other girl had just asked.

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Ayame stuttered. She was taken aback by the serious look in Sango's eye.

"Blake. You should know, right? Or did you forget that, too? I'm in love with him. And I have been for a lot longer than you have!"

Sango wasn't the comforting friend anymore. Now she was a girl aggressively defending her feelings for the boy she loved. Ayame could sense that change, and it put her off.

Suddenly, she remembered talking to Sango before. About boys. About… about…

She couldn't place the memory. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hear the name that left Sango's lips.

But she heard it now. Sango could see that she was struggling to remember. It was the state-based memory or whatever Blake had been talking about. Ayame didn't remember what name she'd said before, but Sango would say it as many times as she had to in order to make it sink in.

"I'm in love with Blake. I want to date him," Sango insisted, leaning forward. "So if you don't want Blake, then let me go out with him."

"Th-That's…" Ayame didn't know what to say. She wasn't used to seeing Sango so forceful when it came to her feelings. From what she remembered, the shy girl had always been too afraid of revealing her crush.

Ayame… Ayame should be fine with that, right? After all, she didn't want to date Blake. So what did it matter if his best friend dated him instead?

"I was too shy before," Sango continued. "I didn't want to lose what I had with him. So I held off, I didn't tell him how I felt. Because I knew that I would get rejected, and I didn't want that. But I knew I had to try. I kept looking for moments, for the perfect opportunity to tell him how I felt! I spent the whole damn trip through Galar trying to find the perfect chance to tell him how I felt, but it just never worked out!"

Bitterness was leaking into her words. As happy as Sango had been for Blake and Ayame, a dark part of her heart felt horribly cheated. Because of the Children of the Oracles and the drama with Blake's sister, she'd been denied the opportunity to reveal her feelings. Then, before everything could settle down, Ayame had comforted him and they'd gotten together.

It should have been me who comforted him! Who he fell in love with! It could have been me! Fuck. She was starting to cry.

Why wasn't it me?

Ayame didn't know what to say. The blonde in front of her looked even more distressed than she felt, and she was the one who'd lost her memories!

Sango had a lot of bitterness welled up inside of her, and it was starting to come out. Ayame could see just how much she cared about Blake. And it was a lot more than she cared about him at the moment, that was for sure.

"I was going to give up on him," she said. "I did give up on him. At least, I knew I had to. I knew that he loved you, and that wasn't going to change. That the most I could ever be was his friend, because you were there for him. So I gave up. I lived with the knowledge that my feelings would never be spoken, and that Blake would never know. I let it be. Because I knew it was the right thing to do."

A cloud of tension hung over the bed. Ayame could hear the "but not anymore" echo in her skull even as the words went unspoken by her friend.

"I'm going to tell Blake how I feel," Sango said, not knowing that Blake was already well aware of her feelings.

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to tell him how I feel," she repeated. "And while he's pursuing you, I'm going to be pursuing him. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm not playing second fiddle again, you understand me?!" She growled, and Ayame flinched. Sango was her friend, her kind, energetic, sweet-as-a-Butterfree friend.

She'd never seen this aggression from the other girl. Not aimed her way, anyway.

"I'm going to make him fall for me," Sango threatened. "I know. It's awful. It's not fair. You lost your memories. By all accounts, it should still be you at his side. And… and if that's what you want, then I'll back off. I swear. Because you're my friend too. But if you don't want that… if you don't want him… then please, just stay out of my way. Let me have this, Ayame, please. It's… it's my miracle. The chance I thought I had to give up on."

She stared at Ayame with pleading eyes. She wanted this so badly Ayame could taste it in the air. What… what was she supposed to say here?

Sango was her friend. And Blake was… well, whatever it was, she didn't like him that way anymore. So why was she finding it so hard to give her blessing?

"Blake, um…" She'd said his name! "He… he'll probably reject you, you know that, right?" Ayame's rather lame reply lacked any conviction whatsoever. If she was trying to convince Sango to back off, she was doing a rather pisspoor job of it.

"So what?" Sango said bluntly. "You just rejected him today, right? On the dock. You shut him down hard. And what, did he fold like a cheap suit? No, he shrugged it off and said that he was going to win you over anyway."

She smirked.

"And so will I."

"B-But-! You can't!" Ayame protested.

Sango shrugged. "Why not?"

"Um… b-because…" She fumbled for a reason to explain why the thought of Blake and Sango going out together wasn't okay.

But her mind, a shattered mess from Samarra, couldn't come up with one. At least not one she could accept on a conscious level.

"Because I'm not going to let you!" Ayame snapped.

Sango blinked, her eyes widening.

"…So wait… you're saying that you'll start dating Blake again?" She asked. The corners of her mouth twitched up slightly.

"What?! No! That's not what I'm saying!" Ayame protested. "I just don't like the way you're doing this, that's all! Pushing your feelings onto a boy, trying to make him like you, it's wrong!"

"Ayame… you're an important friend to me," Sango whispered. "So, if you tell me that you don't want to ask out Blake… if you tell me you don't want to pursue him, then… I won't. But I just want you to tell me why."

Ayame baulked. Sango's stare wasn't like what it had been a moment before. There were no traces of bitterness or regret, just resolved determination to… to do what, exactly?

She didn't know. But those eyes filled her with anxiety.

"L-Listen! Blake said it himself, didn't he? He wants to win me over!" Ayame said. "If you throw yourself at him, that's going to get him all confused! You'll be going against his wishes and not respecting his relationship!"

"What relationship?" Sango asked, raising her eyebrow. "He's single right now. You broke up with him, right?"

"Oh yeah?" Ayame snapped, crossing her arms like an impetuous child. "Well, maybe I don't want to break up with him just yet, then! At least not until I give him a chance to win me over, right? That's just being fair!"

Sango's entire mood changed in an instant.

"Okay then!" She chirped, hopping off the bed and flashing a big smile. "Well, if that's what you want to do, fine by me!"

"H-Hey, wait, what?" Ayame had expected Sango to put up more of a fight than that. "I thought…"

"Good night, Ayame! Silver and I really must be going!" Sango scooped up her Castform and shuffled towards the door.

"Hey, that stuff I said, I didn't mean… I mean, it was the heat of the moment!" Ayame sputtered, chasing after her. "I don't want to date him! I don't! You can have him!"

Her words had all the persuasive power of Cynthia trying to convince herself that she didn't want to ogle large boobs.

"Right, right, sounds good! You have fun!" Sango hummed. Her, confess to Blake? Maybe in a million years! Fanning Ayame's competitive spirit had gone exactly as she hoped. She ducked out the door and left a red-faced Ayame to seethe in the entryway.

She… she tricked me! That little minx!

Whelp, Sango has declared war(?) Maybe? Possibly? Well whatever happened there, she certainly came out of it a victor. Well played, Sango, well played. Fooling someone using your genuine feelings? That's a trick that Claire would be proud of! As for the feelings themselves, well… something tells me Ayame's going to be a little bit flustered when she sees Blake and Sango together in the future.