Cynthia went to Keya in order to get a recommendation for working in the nursery department! But Keya won't give it up so easily. First he wants a battle with Cynthia! Knowing Cynthia, she'll be excited to fight, but the question is, can she win? Keya might not have any pokemon of his own, but his skill lies in adopting wild pokemon to fight for him thanks to his harmonia! Against an opponent with so many pokemon to choose from, Cynthia might be in a tough position!

KedharS: Definitely. Keya has an interesting fighting style that I'm glad to get the chance to showcase!

Arbiter8991: Maddi has a tendency to think the worst about Cynthia, yeah. Samarra doesn't have anything to do with it. She just wasn't expecting to see a human come out of a pokeball, even if she did have fox ears and a fluffy tail.

Hyphenman: Yep, a nice, casual battle with very low stakes, showing off an interesting fighting style from Keya. Should be fun!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1255

"A pokemon battle?" Cynthia asked, perking up. "So what, if I win, then you'll write the recommendation for me?"

"Of course! Or, well, something like that, anyway," Keya grinned, waving his arm around. "We've got more than enough space for it, don't you think? And how can I give you a recommendation without seeing what you're capable of?"

In Maddi's opinion the deciding factor should have been the reason motivating Cynthia to get the recommendation in the first place, which Keya hadn't even asked the girl yet, but she didn't say anything.

Keya was a pretty chill and peaceful guy, but it appeared that even this shorty was getting inspired by the Commander. And since the other party was Cynthia, a fight was basically inevitable, so she quickly stepped out of the way.

"I-I just want to be sure about something before we fight," Cynthia said. "You're trying to see what my bond with my pokemon is, and how much we care about each other, right?"

"That's right," Keya nodded.

Cynthia sighed with relief. "Oh, phew. In that case, this shouldn't be a problem then. Let's do this, Ruby!"

She tossed her pokeball into the air, and her Mawile emerged from it, gnashing the fang-like horns on her head.

"A Mawile, eh?" Keya nodded. "I know all about how Ruby fights!" He cracked a grin. "Let's see, who'd like to help me?"

He tapped his chin and closed his eyes, and the air around him changed. The wild pokemon scurrying around in the field behind them paused, turning their heads to see what was going on. Then one of them ran over.

"Trapinch!" The small pokemon growled, gnashing his own, equally impressive jaws.

"Hey there, Trapinch! You want to battle?" Keya asked.

"Trap!" The Trapinch nodded.

"Well, alright then! Good luck!" Keya smiled, encouraging his friend.

Maddi nodded. This was what she expected. It was how Keya fought, after all. He didn't have any pokemon of his own. So he relied on his harmonia to connect him with wild pokemon who were willing to battle for him.

It shouldn't work, and yet it did. And that was because Keya spent so much of his time in the wild, attuning himself to the pokemon living around him. Thanks to his harmonia he could form a bond with them, but didn't try to enforce that bond through something physical, like a pokeball.

No, their relationship was purely about the connection between them.

In a way, Maddi was reminded of Samarra. And that thought sent a shiver down her spine. She quickly shook her head. No, no, Keya was nothing like Samarra. Just because they both imposed their will on innocents and got them to do what they wanted, that didn't mean…

…

Didn't mean…

She shivered again, and shook her head even harder. No, it was completely different. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the Trapinch, focusing her harmonia the same way as when Ayame had been possessed by Samarra.

Maddi sighed in relief at what she saw. Even though Keya and the Trapinch were connected to each other, it wasn't the same field of possession that had hung in the air over Samarra's victims. They really had a strong, natural bond.

Which was good, because Maddi wasn't entirely confident about Keya's abilities.

As someone who had trained a great deal of pokemon for her own specialized teams, she knew all too well about how much work went into training up particular pokemon for battles. And Keya wasn't training his pokemon. He just let them live their lives. So getting them to fight on even ground with the pokemon that Cynthia had been raising for years just didn't seem feasible.

And yet, Keya didn't seem worried at all. And even though he wasn't in the Battle Course, the Commander trusted his strength.

She was about to find out why that was.

"Because Trapinch has Hyper Cutter, your Mawile's Intimidate won't have any effect," Keya said, cracking another smile. "Sorry to break it to you."

"Not a problem at all!" Cynthia smirked. "Ruby, use fake tears!"

"WWWAAAAAAAA!" Ruby burst out crying, surprising the Trapinch and Keya simultaneously. Even Maddi was a little shocked. Usually, she'd be expecting Cynthia to open up with an attack, not a move to lower status.

It didn't help either that, as a physical attacker, something like fake tears wasn't likely to be of much help. Was she setting up for something? Her Kirlia, maybe?

"Well, you caught us off guard, isn't that right, Trapinch?" Keya asked his friend, who nodded back. "But don't think you can keep catching us with our pants down!" He said, turning back to Cynthia. "Trapinch, use sand tomb!"

As expected, he chose Trapinch because it's a Ground type, and because of that ability… Maddi narrowed her eyes and scowled. If the weakness of Keya's strategy was the fact that the pokemon he relied on were untested and not used to fighting, this was definitely the strength of it. He had so many pokemon he could choose from. Whatever pokemon there were in the wild, he could get them to happily fight for him. Angry Primeapes? Piece of cake. A rampaging Gyarados? Not a problem. A Tyranitar could be set to destroy an entire village in its way, and Keya could get him to calm down and help him out in a battle.

With all those pokemon to choose from, Cynthia was really backed into a corner here. Keya could choose whichever ones in the field would be the best pokemon for the job. And as a type specialist like Maddi could tell you, that gave him quite the edge.

Cynthia didn't seem to mind, though.

"Dodge it, Ruby!" She ordered. Her Mawile leapt back, avoiding the swirling sand that had risen up to swallow her. She was surprisingly nimble given the large mouth hanging off her head. "Nice! Now, use scary face!"

Ruby narrowed her eyes and hissed at the Trapinch, startling it. The tiny pokemon backed off momentarily, his speed lowered.

"With that speed reduction, he should be a sitting duck!" Cynthia chortled. "Now go! Hit him with your snarl!"

"Rrrragh!" Ruby growled, intimidating the Trapinch and causing some serious damage after the special defense drop. The inherent dark quality of the growl caused the pokemon no small amount of pain, that was for sure. But Maddi was still surprised by the move.

Wait a second…

Keya just laughed. "Nicely done! But come on. You didn't think you could really fool us, did you, Cynthia?"

Cynthia blinked.

"Eh?"

"Trapinch, use bulldoze!" Keya ordered.

"Trap! Trapinch!" The Trapinch tunneled under the ground, where it began to shake, sending shockwaves through the grass that knocked Ruby off of her feet. She stumbled back, tripped over herself, and banged her head against a rock.

In a puff of smoke the Illusion was lifted and she turned into a Zorua.

"Z-Z…" Ruby, now Ruka, was trembling. Her eyes began to water and she burst into tears. "ZOOORRRUUUAAAAAA!" She wailed, scurrying back to Cynthia and burying her face in her trainer's sock.

"Oh, sweetie, it's alright, you don't need to cry!" Cynthia cooed, kneeling down and petting her pokemon gently. "Come on, you can come back if you want, okay? I just wanted you to have a taste of pokemon battling!"

"Z-Zorua," Ruka nodded, sniffling. Cynthia lifted her up into her arms and cradled her gently before recalling her back to her pokeball.

Maddi suppressed a sigh.

"I'm surprised, to see you using a pokemon that wasn't used to fighting," Keya said. He grinned. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were using this as a chance to train up your pokemon more than to prove what you've got!"

Cynthia smiled back and shrugged. "Well hey. I trust you, Keya. I know that you'll make the right choice either way. But more than that, I trust myself and my pokemon! Ruka may not be used to fighting, but the rest of my team sure is!"

Keya nodded. Before Cynthia sent out her next pokemon, though, she had something she wanted to ask him.

"Hey, so how did you know?" She asked. "I mean, you said something like 'you didn't really think you fooled us' what did you mean by that? Did you expect me to use Ruka? But how could you? Nobody knows I have a Zorua, I just caught her over break. So what's up?"

Maddi also wanted to hear the answer to that. She glanced curiously at Keya, who just shrugged, not sure what needed to be said.

"I mean… I have harmonia, remember?" He reminded her. "That's the thing with my power. I get an insight into all pokemon, even the ones used by other people. Sure, the voices of my wild friends are louder than others," he continued, kneeling down and patting Trapinch on the head, "but that doesn't mean I'm completely in the dark about what I can hear from other people, you know?"

Cynthia nodded thoughtfully. "So you knew right away that Ruka was a Zorua because of your harmonia, huh? That's really something."

Maddi blinked. What the heck? SHE didn't have that power. She had 100% believed that Ruka was a Mawile (and before that, a kidnapping victim) because she hadn't sensed anything to make her think otherwise.

…Now that she thought about it, she didn't sense Keya, either. Normally, harmonia users should be able to react to one another, to tell when they're around, right? That was part of the deal. That would have been really useful half an hour ago while they were looking for him, but she hadn't sensed anything coming from the boy. And it's not like that wasn't the case with other people. She still reacted to Vic the way she expected to.

Keya's harmonia was pretty special, apparently.

She shook her head and ignored that. What was more important right now was focusing on the match, and rooting for Cynthia.

"Well, I guess no tricks then!" Cynthia decided. "We'll go at you with full power, right, Tristan?" She tossed out her next pokeball, sending out her Breloom.

"Breloom!" Tristan nodded in agreement.

Keya smiled. "Well, relying on your Breloom again, eh? And here I thought that you'd decided not to use him as much, since you didn't want to be overly reliant on your strongest pokemon?"

Cynthia smiled back. "Yeah, that was the case once upon a time," she agreed. "But I learned a thing or two over break, you know? And I figured out that it's better to rely on the pokemon that can get the job done, rather than worry that I'm getting too dependent on him! Tristan's the best choice for taking down your Trapinch, so he's who I'm going to use! End of story!"

Keya nodded in approval. "Good thinking! I have similar thoughts on the matter! Trapinch, it's okay if you want to stop now, k?"

"Trapinch," Trapinch nodded, tunneling down into the ground. He quickly fled from the battle.

"We can call that a loss for my side," Keya said, turning to Cynthia. "I don't think he's going to want to come back any time soon."

Cynthia was a little miffed by that. It felt like Keya was taking it easy on her. "Well… I guess I can make some allowances," she sighed. It's not like she enjoyed beating up wild pokemon or anything. Things were just different where Keya was concerned, she had to figure.

For now, though, she was curious what pokemon he'd use next.

Keya closed his eyes and Maddi could feel his harmonia extending out in a field around him. This time she tried to monitor it more closely using some of the tricks Marion had advised. She focused on Keya at the center of his harmonia, trying to reach out to other pokemon.

She figured out who he was calling on practically the same moment that he did.

"Fearow!" A large bird who'd been nestled in the tree flapped his wings, flying towards Tristan. He lowered his head and the air around his beak began to spin like a drill.

"Awesome, Fearow!" Keya called. "Get him with your drill peck!"

"I shoulda figured you'd call on a Flying type if you could!" Cynthia laughed. "And guess what? I did! Tristan, use spore!"

"Breloom!" Tristan relied on his old reliable strategy of "put the enemy pokemon to sleep". Maddi should have seen that one coming. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't underestimate a Fearow's flying speed," Keya warned, narrowing his eyes. To Cynthia's surprise, the Fearow turned sharply, and the rotation around his beak extended across his entire body. In a second he was elegantly spinning out of the way of the spores, arcing around towards Tristan to catch him from behind.

"Tristan!" Cynthia cried. The Fearow pierced him in the back with his spinning beak, drilling into Tristan at full power.

"BRELOOOM!" Tristan roared in pain, his entire body shaking from the force of the assault. He stumbled forward, swaying from side to side. The Fearow flapped his wings and backed off, circling around for a second strike.

"This is one of the benefits of my harmonia," Keya explained. "I can call upon the natural instincts of the pokemon. They haven't been trained or domesticated in any way, this is a real Fearow, one who has to hunt for his food every day. And you may not know this, but Fearow are very swift and brutal hunters. They have full mastery of their long beaks, and specialize in maneuvering them perfectly to capture their prey. What you just saw was an example of it! Move behind the prey and then strike!"

Maddi winced. Tristan had took a bad hit from that. It didn't help either that Keya was strengthening the pokemon he was using with his harmonia.

But Cynthia didn't seem bothered. "I figured it'd be something like that," she grinned. "After all, wild pokemon have all sorts of advantages. But there's some stuff you can only get by counting on years of training, right, Tristan?"

"Breloom!" Tristan nodded. He turned his head, scanning the air and following the Fearow with his eyes. As the pokemon made his turn to strike, Tristan opened his mouth and fired a barrage of bullet seeds at him.

"Evasive maneuvers," Keya ordered. The Fearow picked up speed, zigzagging to dodge the seeds as he turned and arced around Tristan, moving in to attack him again.

Cynthia saw right through that.

"Tristan!" She shouted. "Use mach punch!"

"Breloom!" Tristan turned on his heel and raised his claw, shooting forward and hitting Fearow in the jaw, deflecting the bird pokemon's beak and sending him crashing to the ground. Keya winced, rubbing his chin.

"That stung," he groaned.

"I'll bet it did!" Cynthia crowed triumphantly. "That's the thing you've gotta understand, Keya, your wild pokemon may have their natural instincts, but that's not always enough! Let me take a guess on the number of wild Breloom that Fearow has fought before! Is it… zero!"

Keya laughed. "Pretty much," he admitted.

"That's the thing!" Cynthia placed her hands on her hips. "As a wild pokemon, he only has so much experience battling, after all. He's used to hunting his natural prey, like Caterpies and Weedles and whatever. But against a pokemon trained for battle, who knows what Tristan does? He's going to have a hard time!"

Maddi nodded in agreement. That was exactly what she felt. Keya's harmonia let him call upon a vast selection of wild pokemon, but they were still wild pokemon. They hadn't prepared themselves for fighting against opponents outside of their ecosystem.

For a moment, Maddi thought that Cynthia had discovered the fatal flaw in Keya's entire method of pokemon battling!

But then the Fearow flapped his wings and returned to the sky, circling for a third time. That made her tense for some reason.

Wild pokemon had natural patterns. The same way that a Victreebel will remain planted in the forest in the hopes of prey sneaking up on it to be eaten, or Caterpie hiding to blend in with the leaves, wild pokemon had natural habits that caused them to behave in predictable ways. And this Fearow had a habit of circling around its prey to attack it. And as long as it did that, Cynthia would be able to follow it, and Tristan would be able to strike.

So why did Maddi feel uneasy? Why was Keya relying on the same strategy over and over with his pokemon, when she'd already seen through it once?

"We'll do it same as last time!" Cynthia narrowed her eyes as she saw the Fearow prepare a drill peck again.

Same as before, the Fearow circled around Tristan, coming in from behind. Even though the last time he had used this strategy he'd gotten a fist in the beak for his troubles, his wild instincts encouraged him to keep using the method that worked.

And if this was just a wild Fearow it would be as simple as that.

"Mach punch!" Cynthia ordered. Tristan whirled around, swinging his fist at the Fearow a second time. But this time, there was nothing to hit.

"Fearow!" The large bird had sprung up even higher into the air, gliding over the Breloom. He pulled back his long neck and jammed it down, striking right on the cap Tristan was wearing and practically drilling into his skull.

"No, Tristan!" Cynthia cried.

Keya smirked. "I expected you'd try that," he laughed. "Now who's the one enslaved to their wild instincts, Cynthia?"

Cynthia scowled as Tristan stumbled back, dizzy from the beak drilling into him. The Fearow took to the sky and circled again.

"It's true that Fearow naturally hunt like that," Keya admitted. "But you forgot that I'm here, too. And with harmonia, I can guide him down a different path."

Cynthia raised her eyebrow curiously and even Maddi was intrigued.

"What you just saw is a method that Doduo and Dodrio use to hunt," Keya explained. "They leap up high and jab their prey with their beaks. So I just had Fearow try that, instead."

Immediately Maddi understood the strength of Keya's harmonia, and Cynthia did too.

"I see!" She said, her eyes shining. "So because you're connected with so many wild pokemon, you're familiar with how they all hunt and fight! And with your harmonia, you can teach other wild pokemon those tactics! That's genius!"

"Exactly!" Keya nodded eagerly. "While instincts are hard to overcome, it's not impossible. By teaching different hunting styles and survival skills pioneered by different species of pokemon, they can work out ones that suit them the best. And that increases their odds of survival and their skill at fighting!"

Maddi thought it through. It was quite an interesting thought process, but she was certain there was more to it.

"This is just a taste of what we can do," Keya promised. "Come on, Cynthia, I've got a lot more stuff I want to show you!"

Cynthia nodded, a wide smile on her face. She couldn't wait.

Well, this is certainly an interesting battle! And an interesting fighting style from Keya, relying on the natural instincts of wild pokemon to improve them, and train them to battle against trainers like Cynthia. Keya and wild pokemon are quite a lethal combination it seems, will Cynthia be able to beat him?