Time to return to the peaceful days at the Pokemon Academy. Break was stressful, and not everyone is back yet (the people doing their gym leader studies won't return for a few more weeks) but things are off to a great start! I think we should have a little bit more normalcy for a while, after all that drama. Something soft and light-hearted.

KedharS: Sango is a lot sneakier than she appears to be.

Hyphenman: Yep, with scheming like that, Ayame's doomed. She's got the full weight of Sango, Cynthia, and Olivia bearing down on her, not to mention Blake himself. No way out.

Khjd: Hope you enjoy it!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1254

Maddi was awoken by loud knocking on her door. She slumped up and yawned, rubbing her eyes. The pounding was so obnoxious it felt like her brain itself was being knocked on.

With a groan she slogged out of bed and trudged over to the door, wondering who the hell it could be that was bothering her this early in the morning.

"Hey Maddi! It's so great to see you again!" Cynthia greeted Maddi with a beaming smile, waving at her friend cheerfully.

Maddi slammed the door in her face and went back to bed.

"Oh come on!" Cynthia wailed. "Don't be like that! It's me! Didn't you miss me at all?! Come on Maddi!" She wailed.

Maddi sighed, stopping halfway to her bed. She really shouldn't indulge Cynthia like this, but she couldn't help herself.

"What do you want, Cynthia?" She grumbled, turning back to the door. She wasn't going to let her inside yet.

"I want to speak to Keya! You know how I can get in contact with him, right?!"

Maddi raised her eyebrow. Keya? What could Cynthia want with him? Whenever Cynthia was hanging around with the students in the Commander's organization, she spent most of her time bugging her. Maddi had no idea that she even knew the names of the others.

"…Yeah, I guess I could help," she mumbled. The sooner she got Cynthia out of her hair, the better, after all.

If only it could be so easy.

Somehow, Maddi had gotten roped into tagging along with Cynthia on her little expedition, much to the other girl's chagrin.

How did I let her talk me into this? Maddi asked herself in dumb confusion. She should have told Cynthia where to shove it and enjoyed her morning off (the class schedule for juniors and seniors had been thrown into disarray due to the unplanned return from the Orre Region) but somehow she'd let herself get sweet-talked into coming along.

The only explanation Maddi could think of for how that happened was that she'd actually missed Cynthia on the trip and deep down wanted to hang out with her.

And that was a line of thinking that Maddi wouldn't even pretend to consider.

But still, here she was, following Cynthia on her jaunty stroll across campus towards the wilderness outside.

Once you got past the borderlines of the Floette Fields, there were a few places you could go. The island was rather large, and had a very lush ecosystem. There was a trail that wound its way around the perimeter of the island, branching off in certain places to lead to destinations that teachers would use for lessons, or students could take to go capture pokemon.

To get to Keya's favorite hangout, they weren't following any of those trails. Rather, Maddi had given Cynthia a hastily-scrawled map provided to her by the boy, and she was stunned that the other girl could read it- or even more, would actually follow it.

"I thought you hated hiking," Maddi grumbled. She'd spent the last few weeks on a mountain, she wasn't in the mood for more exercise now that she was back in civilization.

"But this is important!" Cynthia protested. "It's fine, we'll get there soon. I actually did quite a bit of hiking while on break, going up and down Jagged Pass, and OH MY GOSH MADDI! I TOTALLY FORGOT!" She squealed, nearly blowing out Maddi's eardrums. Finding Keya had been quickly forgotten in exchange for something else.

"Did you forget to put your muzzle on?" Maddi muttered under her breath.

"Nope!"

Oh. She heard that. Well, that was embarrassing.

"I need to show you my newest most bestest friend!" Cynthia said, grabbing a pokeball from her belt and pressing a button.

Maddi fell back in shock when she saw what was inside it.

"A-A person?!" She sputtered. Whatever remaining traces of sleepiness she still had disappeared when she saw the black-haired girl that came out of the pokeball. The cutie crouched in the grass and smiled at Maddi with big sparkling eyes. "Cynthia you kidnapped somebody with a pokeball?! What the hell?! How is that even possible?!" Maddi demanded.

Cynthia laughed. "Hey, come on, it's not like-"

"Right, we need to call the police first," Maddi said, fishing out her phone.

"HEY!" Cynthia practically tackled her. That response had seemed a little too real for comfort. "She's not a person, she's a pokemon!"

Maddi set her phone down and looked at Ruka suspiciously. The Zorua smiled innocently back at her, and tilted her head to the side. Her tail flopped in the grass and her ears twitched. So it wasn't some elaborate cosplay that Cynthia had forced her sex slave into then.

"…What the hell…" Maddi mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose in disbelief.

"Maddi? This is Ruka! She's a Zorua! Ruka, introduce yourself to Maddi, if you don't mind!" Cynthia grinned.

"Zorua!" Ruka nodded, signing "hello" to Maddi.

Maddi, not knowing one bit of sign language, had no idea what was happening.

"…What's she doing with her hands?" Maddi asked, turning to Cynthia in confusion.

"It's, um, sign language," Cynthia mumbled. "She's saying hello… I think?"

Ruka's ears drooped and she frowned.

"Hey, I'm sorry!" Cynthia wailed, running over and giving Ruka head pats. "I'm doing my best, but I can't learn it all in a day you know!"

Maddi sighed and checked her phone. She couldn't believe it wasn't even 9 o'clock yet. When she was around Cynthia it was like time slowed to a crawl.

"Ruka, this is Maddi. She's, like, one of my best friends ever," Cynthia explained.

Maddi rolled her eyes.

"Zorua!" Ruka waved, smiling.

"I caught her in Hoenn," Cynthia explained. "Apparently, she was being looked after by a girl who used to live there, before she passed away…"

Cynthia sighed, and a wistful expression crossed her face. But she quickly perked up. "Now, me and her are best buds, right Ruka?"

"Zorua!" Ruka hopped to her feet and hugged Cynthia tightly.

It was rather strange for Maddi. At 4'8", Cynthia was almost a full foot shorter than her pokemon, who nevertheless seemed like an energetic child around her. It almost reminded her of…

"Wait, she's Sango's height!" Maddi realized. She'd seen the two girls interacting enough. And while Ruka's ears made her look even taller, it was clear that her body belonged to Sango. Minus a few upgrades in the chest area, anyway.

"Zorua…" Ruka smiled sheepishly, scratching her hair.

"Yeah, she, um… she used her Illusion ability to borrow from our appearances a little," Cynthia explained.

That explained why her human form looked so much like Cynthia. A taller Cynthia, with boobs, and big blue eyes.

Maddi didn't want to think about what twisted ideas had gone into sculpting this figure.

"Well, hello there, Ruka, nice to meet you," she said, greeting the pokemon with as friendly a smile as she could.

"Hello there!"

She flinched. No way, right? She could have sworn she just heard…

Wait. That's right. I have harmonia now… Maddi hadn't forgotten her abilities, but it had completely slipped her mind that she could hear the voices of pokemon as well. Ruka may not have been able to communicate with her using sign language, but the voice in her heart still carried pretty good to Maddi's ear.

She decided to not bring it up.

"So is she coming with us to find Keya?" Maddi asked.

Cynthia glanced at Ruka. Ruka shook her head and crossed her arms.

"…I don't think she likes hiking," Cynthia replied.

Maddi rolled her eyes. Imagine fucking that.

Cynthia recalled Ruka to her pokeball, and grabbed her map again. She could tell from Maddi's sour expression that the other girl wasn't having a good time, but that wasn't important. Positivity! That was the word of the day! "Let's go, Maddi! Onward!"

Maddi begrudgingly followed Cynthia further through the wilderness, wondering how much longer it would take. She'd never actually visited Keya when he went off into the woods like this. She knew what it was like to want to be left alone, and most of the time, she respected that.

To Cynthia, it was a foreign concept.

"Alright, according to the map, one more turn and then we're almost… there…"

Cynthia stopped in front of a large rock in the middle of the woods. It was practically a small mountain, more than twice her height. A house-sized rock right smack in the center of the forest. There was no one around, not even wild pokemon.

"Hello? Keya? You here?" She called, circling around the rock.

"Guess he's not," Maddi said. "Can we go back now, please?"

"No, but it says he's right here!" Cynthia pouted. "Look, see?"

She shoved the map in Maddi's face. There was indeed a large rock drawn on the map, with a big "X" right in the center of it. To make things clearer, and arrow was drawn to point at the X, with the label "right here".

Yup. Seemed pretty definite.

"Well, he's not here, so what do you want to do?" Maddi asked.

"He wasn't at the Commander's base, or in his dorm, or anywhere!" Cynthia scowled. "So he's gotta be here, right?"

She cupped her hands over her mouth. "KEYA! YOU HERE?!"

Silence.

Then to Maddi's surprise, Cynthia's ideas got even dumber.

"Maybe he's on top of the rock!" She suggested.

"He would have heard you."

"Maybe he's asleep!"

Maddi sighed and rolled her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. What the hell?

"Well, my leg's bad, so I'm not climbing it," she replied. A lie. Maddi's leg might still have scars, but most of the time it didn't impede her physical capabilities at all. She just didn't want to climb a boulder for no reason.

"That's fine! I brought a secret weapon!" Cynthia said, digging around in her bag. She withdrew a long rope.

Maddi raised her eyebrow.

"I borrowed it from Sango," Cynthia explained. "We can use it to climb up the rock and see for ourselves!"

"Okay, but how are we going to tie it off? Did you steal her climbing gear, too?" Maddi asked, rolling her eyes.

Cynthia blinked.

"Uh…"

Maddi smacked her face in frustration. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

"Hey, wait! I know!" Cynthia said. She snatched another pokeball off of her belt. "Elise!"

"Swellow!" Cynthia's Swellow emerged from her pokeball, staring down at Cynthia.

"Hey Elise!" Cynthia waved cheerfully. "Be a dear and carry this rope up, would you? Just hold it on that rock!"

"Swell," Elise nodded, snatching the end of the rope in her talons and flying up over the rock, dangling it down so they could climb up.

"Great, see! Now we can climb and- Maddi? What's up?" Cynthia asked, confused. Maddi's face was firmly lodged in her palm.

"Or," Maddi said, "you could just ride Elise up to the top of the rock."

Cynthia blinked.

"Even better!" She screamed. "You heard her, Elise! Carry me up!" Cynthia got on her Swellow's back, and the bird pokemon flew her up to the rock. She hopped off her back and tossed the rope back down to Maddi.

"Okay Maddi! I'll hold it, you can climb up!"

"You could have Elise carry me up there, too," Maddi called back.

"Oh yeah. Whoops."

Maddi sighed. Clearly, Cynthia hadn't gotten much brighter over the break. But hey, she was excited, that's the kind of person she was. Maddi almost envied how passionate Cynthia could get about anything and everything.

No, I don't! I don't envy her at all! Maddi snapped at herself, refusing to acknowledge the narrator's factual claims. She got on Elise's back and joined Cynthia atop the rock. Cynthia recalled her pokemon and they turned to look at their new surroundings.

The rock was large. It was practically big enough to have a pokemon battle on.

It was also completely barren. A smooth, flat surface without a trace of the dark-skinned boy they were looking for.

"…He's not here," Maddi said dryly. "Can we go back now?"

Cynthia shook her head. "He could be hiding!"

"Where?!" Maddi was getting sick of indulging her friend's crazy ideas. But unfortunately, what she wanted didn't seem to matter today.

Maddi sat back and watched Cynthia walk across the rock, scanning her eyes around to try and find where Keya could be hiding.

Then she blinked and the redhead disappeared.

"Wha- buh?!" Maddi gasped in disbelief, nearly falling off the boulder in shock. "Cynthia?! What the hell?!"

She hopped up and looked around frantically, but her friend was nowhere to be seen. "Cynthia, where did you go?!" She shouted, running towards the spot where she'd last seen her.

"Maddi! Wait!" Cynthia's voice echoed through the air, sounding distant and yet nearby. Maddi stopped and looked around, still confused.

"I can hear you, but I can't see you."

"Look down!" Cynthia shouted. "Ow…"

Maddi did look down. At her feet, in the center of a large indent, was a hole.

"…You down there?" Maddi called.

"Yeah!" Cynthia groaned. "I fell on a big stuffed Snorlax though. I'm okay! Be careful climbing down, it looks like there's a ladder or something."

On closer inspection Maddi saw that Cynthia was right. A rope ladder had been hooked to one of the indents in the rock, just perfect for Maddi to climb down.

It was a bit of a tight fit. While Maddi would definitely classify her body type as slim, she couldn't compare to Keya, who had the physique of an 8 year old, or the skinny-as-a-rail Cynthia (who had the brains of one). Still, with some doing, she managed to shimmy her way down the ladder, dropping down on something soft.

"Ow. Again."

Whoops. Not a Snorlax doll. Unless they came in redhead.

"Get off me please."

Maddi rolled off of Cynthia. Apparently, the doll they were lying on was the perfect fit for the little alcove they found themselves in, nice and soft and cushioned for people who ended up falling into this little death trap.

"So we're down a hole. What the heck?" Maddi grumbled.

"I guess Keya's map was more detailed than we thought," Cynthia said, taking it out of her pocket. Luckily, the chamber they'd landed in was very well-lit, so they could read it. Tiny little lamps hung from the walls, powered by who knows what.

Cynthia pointed to the arrow, that pointed to the X, which was right in the center of the boulder. Maddi figured it out.

"…So the X wasn't telling us that Keya was at the rock," Maddi said. "It was pointing to the center of the rock, where this hole was."

"Yup."

"SAY THAT ON THE FUCKING MAP!" Maddi wanted to tear the stupid thing apart. But she calmed herself down. "So what the heck is this, anyway?" She looked to Cynthia, only to see that the redhead was off in la-la land. Her eyes were shining with glee.

"It's a secret base!" She screamed, hopping off the Snorlax with such force that the bouncing belly nearly knocked Maddi off as well.

The lamps in the walls led down a long corridor in the rock. Maddi realized that this secret base Cynthia called it must lead beyond the rock, traveling underground.

She sighed and followed Cynthia. Keya was probably at the end of this tunnel.

"So what's a secret base?" She asked.

"Oh, folks make 'em all the time in Hoenn!" Cynthia explained. "You find a nice little alcove in a rock, or maybe a thick bush, or even a really big tree, and you can have your pokemon use secret power to dig out a whole little secret base for you!"

"…But Keya doesn't have any pokemon," Maddi reminded her.

"No, but I do have friends who are happy to help!"

Cynthia and Maddi turned the corner to see Keya's secret base in its entirety. And it was really something.

There must have been a cliff somewhere further into the forest, that was the only way this made sense. Because otherwise, there shouldn't be sunlight streaming in underground. Maddi raised her head to shield her eyes, and saw that the sunlight was coming in from cracks up in the ceiling. It was a large dome made of rock, and at its peak a large shape was carved out of it like a star, as if the ground had risen up from all sides to come to a single point, but hadn't quite closed. It scaled up as well, with a large grassy hill rising in the center of the chamber, and even housed a few trees that had somehow been properly nourished. An underground spring sat at the base of the tree, where wild pokemon drank from.

That's right, Keya's secret base was full of wild pokemon. It was like someone had come upon a secret enclosure. She knew immediately what she was reminded of.

"It's like the underground caretaking area by Kangaskhan Hall!" Maddi gasped, remembering where all the pokemon lived during the winter.

"Yup!" Keya nodded, walking up to them with a smile. "That was the inspiration for this place."

Cynthia's eyes landed on the green armband he was wearing. Jackpot.

Most of the people in the Commander's organization were members of the Battle Course. Which made sense, given their leader's propensity for pokemon battles. But there were always exceptions. Chloe, for example, was part of the Research Course.

Keya was another exception. Not having any pokemon of his own, the classes in the Battle Course weren't conducive to his learning. Because of that, he'd majored in the Caretaker Course instead, where he could use his abilities to connect to pokemon in the wild and belonging to other people to their fullest.

"So what do you two want?" He asked cheerfully. "Come here to play with my friends and I?"

Maddi glanced at Cynthia. The other girl hadn't actually told her the reason she was looking for Keya in the first place.

"I need to ask a really big favor!" Cynthia pleaded. "Can you write me a letter of recommendation?"

Maddi's eyes widened in surprise. Keya looked at her curiously.

"A… letter of recommendation? From me?" He asked, intrigued.

"Yeah. I want to get permission to work part-time with the caretakers in the nursery," Cynthia explained. "But since I'm not in the Caretaker Course or taking any relevant classes, Serefina said I need to get permission from a faculty member, and recommendations from two students in the Caretaker Course already. I have one other person I can think to ask, but I could really use some help with this. So… please?"

She clasped her hands together and gazed pleadingly at Keya. It was rather interesting to see Cynthia begging someone shorter than her for once.

Keya thought about it. Then he smiled.

"I suppose I could," he agreed. "That is… if you can beat me in a pokemon battle."

Cynthia smiled broadly. That was music to her ears!

Well now, a pokemon battle between Cynthia and a guy with no pokemon! That should be an interesting sight! It's about time Keya got a chance to shine, he had harmonia and yet was totally useless in the Orre Region due to the lack of wild pokemon! But now he has a chance to show us what he can really do! Also, I may have said in a prior chapter that Keya was in the Battle Course. If I did, feel free to disregard that. He's in the Caretaker Course, because it makes more sense.