Blake's been dealing with a whole lot of bullshit, and certainly not the good kind. Because of his plans to defeat Kanone and help his sister, he's turned one his closest friends against him! What a jerk move, pretending like he was going to kiss Sango to get her upset and drive her away! What kind of asshole would do something like that? Well, whatever the reason, he has a lot to prepare for in his match against Kanone. Hopefully his training will make the friendships he's sacrificing worth it.

KedharS: I can blame Blake. He's being a jerk. Don't pretend to kiss a girl who likes you just to make her mad. (Yeah I know it's more complicated than that. Still, though.)

Tambry96bj: They're always pretty fun. A nice breather arc.

Hyphenman: Yeah, Blake was being kind of a dumbass here. But yes, it is nice to see Sango and Maddi interact again, even though the first act of "friendship" we see is Sango storming in on her private time and demanding her help, like Cynthia would have done.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1275

It was mid-afternoon by the time Blake made it back to his dorm. He was lost in thought as he contemplated his upcoming match with his brother. He'd just finished a phone call with Kate, arranging something important for the battle.

With her support, I have two aces I can play against my brother now, he thought. But even with that, he wasn't sure if it would be enough. He would need to start training immediately, he was really just coming back to get his things.

Unfortunately for Blake, Sango had already returned, as had Julia and Kitty, and the girls had stormed in on Nick to stage an intervention for Blake.

"…What the heck is this?" Blake sighed, sweeping his eyes across his room. Only Reiner and Nikita weren't here.

"It's an intervention!" Cynthia crossed her arms over her chest. "Sango told us everything that happened! You're going to train to fight against your brother, and not compete in the Pokeathlon Competition?!"

Oh, that's right. The announcement came out, I completely forgot. While Blake had been busy with his preparations, Olivia had finished up her discussion with Leanne, and had sent an announcement email to everyone involved.

And now students all across school would start preparing for the upcoming competition. And even a few of the sophomores who would be arriving in a few days were starting to get ready for it as well. A lighthearted activity like this was just what the doctor ordered to bring some levity back to the student body after the depressing cancellation of the Orre Region trip.

"I'm going to be entering the tournament, Blake, and so are you!" Cynthia insisted. "You've gotta help Ayame! I know your sister is important to you, but this is bigger than that! We're talking about Ayame's memories! You can't just let that go."

"She's not wrong," Julia nodded. "I understand what you're going through, but if you compete with Ayame, and she can really get back her memories that way, I think that's the better option, for everyone's sake."

"We don't want to lose you," Kitty mumbled. "We're afraid that you're not thinking clearly, Blake, that's all…" As someone who had lost herself to the allure of harmonia for a time, Kitty understood better than most what the issues with Blake and his sister were. But she also knew that this wasn't something he should handle alone.

Blake glanced at Nick. "What about you?" He asked. "Got anything to say?"

Nick flinched and shook his head. He had nothing to do with this period.

Blake sighed. "It seems like this is getting out of hand," he said, glancing at Sango. She stared defiantly back at him. Even though she was his friend, she wasn't about to let him do this. Even if she had to enter the tournament herself. She wanted to help Ayame if she could, but more than that, she wanted to get Blake worked up, so that hopefully he'd be goaded into joining her.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to enter the tournament," Blake said. "Do you really think I'm planning to just abandon Ayame because my brother happens to be offering to tell me the truth about what happened with my sister?"

Everyone took a moment for that to sink in.

"Wait, what?!" Cynthia exclaimed, whirling towards Sango. "Sango, that's not what we were talking about!"

"Yeah, what gives?" Kitty asked.

Sango was shocked. "B-But you said…"

"I said a lot of things," Blake said, not interested in playing her games, "but the thing you need to understand is that I'm not the kind of guy who rolls over and gives up."

He narrowed his eyes. "I promised that I would get Ayame's memories back, and I intend to do just that."

"So you ARE going to be training for the Pokeathlon!" Cynthia grinned, her eyes wide.

Blake shook his head. "No, I'm going to be training to fight my brother. If there's any spare time besides that, then yeah, we'll be training for the events, but-"

"That's naïve!" Sango snapped. "I'm sorry, but this event is going to be really difficult, you know! Didn't you check the activity schedule they sent in the email?"

Blake frowned. "…I skimmed it…"

"There are two days' worth of events!" Sango scowled. "The first day is the preliminary round, to determine who will be eligible for the main competition! Only 16 students will make it to the main, you know?!"

Blake winced. "Only 16?"

"That's right," Sango nodded. "There are going to be three events on the first day, a sort-of relay competition. The first event is a race with your pokemon to get to the finish line. Then from there, you have to navigate an obstacle course over the water! And the third event is a team battle where you and your pokemon have to work together to steal flags from the other team! And the last 16 students standing will make it to the actual Pokeathlon part of the competition! It's not going to be something you can just enter half-assedly, there's going to be a lot of work!"

Blake frowned. "Okay, yeah, I get it. But I'm going to be focusing on training against Kanone. As for the rest of that… we'll manage. Have a little faith, Sango."

Sango couldn't believe what she was hearing. Blake wanted her to have FAITH? After the crap he pulled?!

"Whatever," she scowled. "I hope you understand what you're doing, because if you get the boot early in the preliminaries and Ayame ignores you completely, this whole mess could end up being for nothing, I hope you understand that!"

"I understand perfectly," Blake assured her. "And don't worry, I have no intention of taking it easy. It's just that this battle with Kanone… I need to do my best."

He sighed and sunk into a chair, steepling his fingers. This was all a huge mess. And he didn't know what he should do to clean it up.

Kitty winced, chewing on her lip. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"I think we should believe in him!" She decided.

Julia raised her eyebrow, surprised to hear that outburst coming from her friend.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah," Kitty nodded adamantly. "Blake is doing the best he can. And I know that he cares about Ayame! So even if it doesn't seem that way… I know he's really giving this all he's got." She stared into Blake's eyes, feeling a connection of understanding with him. Blake nodded, relieved that someone was finally on his side.

"Well, if that's what you think, Kitty, then I'm with you!" Cynthia decided, punching the air in agreement.

Sango's jaw dropped. "Cynthia?!" She expected Cynthia of all people, one of her closest friends, to at least be in agreement with her on this.

Cynthia shrugged. "Look, I know Blake," she said. "And if he says he can do it, then I know he's going to try and do it."

"But he could still fail!" Sango protested. "This is way too reckless!"

"Then if he fails, he fails," Cynthia said. "But Kitty believes in him, so I might as well believe in him too, right?" She winked at the white-haired girl and Kitty's face lit up in surprise. She had no idea her opinion held such weight with Cynthia.

"You… you really mean that?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course I do!" Cynthia laughed. "After all, you're the biggest pessimist here! If even you're saying that Blake can do it, I can believe with all my heart!"

Kitty slumped over in dejection, feeling like an idiot for getting her hopes up. Julia shot Cynthia a glare that the redhead ignored.

"Now then, Blake! Good luck on your training to beat Kanone!" She said, giving him a thumbs' up. "I'm going to be training myself, you know!"

She was lucky that her work in the nursery wouldn't start until next week. That would give her all the free time she needed to take care of training her pokemon.

"Oh, but don't come crying to me when you're out of time and need a training partner for the competition," she laughed. "We won't be showing any of our moves to you!"

It was just a joke, but as the words left her lips and landed on Blake's ears, a flash of inspiration suddenly hit him.

"That's it!" He exclaimed, leaping up and grabbing Cynthia's hands, startling her. "Cynthia! You're a genius! I can't believe I didn't think of it until just now! I need you!"

Cynthia's face turned bright red.

"W-Wait, but… but what about Ayame?! Don't you still… this, this is too sudden…" Her brain was overheating as the weight of Blake's words sunk in. He needed her? He wanted her? All this time she thought that Ayame was the only one for him, but…

Her heart pounded in her chest as she prepared herself. But no, this was too soon!

"Please, I want to do it with you, but not here in front of everyone!" She wailed, turning away from him in shame.

"Cynthia, could you please help me train against my brother?" Blake pleaded at the same time.

The room was silent for a few seconds as the weight of those two statements settled in on everyone else.

Cynthia wanted to die of shame.

"Cynthia…" Blake dropped her hands, slightly embarrassed. Cynthia immediately buried her face in them and screamed.

"FORGET IT! I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!" She exclaimed.

Everyone collectively decided as if nothing had been said.

Completely humiliated, Cynthia found no choice other than to go along with Blake's request, and followed him out of the room to discuss what help he needed for his upcoming match. While she was doing that, Sango sulked.

Her intervention had been fruitless. She'd wanted to get everyone turned against Blake and maybe talk some sense into him, but at the end of it Cynthia had switched sides and was now HELPING Blake train for his fight against his brother.

"…Castform…" Silver drifted down next to her, frowning. She sighed and patted the tiny little pokemon on the head.

"It's going to be okay, Silver," she promised him. "Things are just really complicated right now, that's all. But don't worry, I'm not going to give up, I promise."

"Castform…" Silver nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Nick was feeling a bit like an outcast in his own room. He didn't know if he had the pokemon necessary to compete, and honestly, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to. If Callie was here, and she was entering, then he'd do it with relish, but right now, he just wasn't in the right mental state to handle things.

"Hey, Nick…"

An unlikely person was the first one to sense something was wrong and come up to him to see if he was okay.

With the intervention a bust, Kitty had a big pile of stored up empathy and no way to deliver it to anyone. Nick made a very convenient party at the moment. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder (which she could only do because he was currently sitting down) and asked if everything was okay.

"…Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "I'm just dealing with a bunch of bullshit, that's all."

"Bull… shit?" Kitty asked, not thrilled to be using such dirty language.

Nick nodded solemnly. "It's this whole thing with Callie. I mean, I know she got injured in a training incident-"

"Wait, you still believe that?" Julia scowled.

Sango perked up, drawn out of her funk by the new conversation. "Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked.

"Yeah, what ARE you saying?" Nick scowled. Sango may have been asking because she genuinely had missed parts of the conversation, but Nick heard everything. Julia was saying that the incident with Callie might not have been an accident training her pokemon after all.

"Well, I mean you still can't be buying that half-baked story, right?" Julia shook her head. "Come on, Nick, you're smarter than that."

Nick glared at her. "Then tell me what you mean," he growled.

"Well, use your brain," Julia shrugged. "Callie got injured in the Orre Region, she's in such bad shape that she had to go to a hospital and is currently recuperating there because she's too injured to travel by plane."

"Yeah, what does that mean?" Kitty asked worriedly. She still didn't understand what Julia was trying to say.

Julia groaned, unable to believe her friends were this naïve. "Weren't you guys listening to anything Sango told us earlier? About this crazy conspiracy? Didn't you JUST hear Blake ranting about his sister in the Orre Region, and his brother refusing to tell him anything about her?"

The picture Julia was painting was a grim one. As she spoke, the others took a moment to let her words sink in.

"W-Wait, are you saying…" Kitty started shaking.

"I don't know," Julia admitted, shrugging. "I have no idea if Blake's sister is the one responsible for it. But what I do know is that Callie being injured in a 'training incident'," she made quotation marks with her fingers, "is complete bullshit. That's the story they're trying to sell you, don't buy into the hype you two."

"I think Julia's right," Sango nodded grimly. "Even Alcea was going along with the conspiracy. I don't think she would have done that if the situation wasn't serious."

"Exactly," Julia nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. She knew Alcea the best out of everyone here due to being trained under her, and if Alcea was keeping things quiet, then it had to be for a very good reason.

Nick scowled. He had a lot to think about now.

"If that's the case… then Blake's right. This is more important than some dumb tournament," he muttered.

Kitty winced. "Wait, Nick…"

That wasn't the direction she'd wanted this to go at all.

But Nick wasn't waiting. He got out of his seat and stormed out of the room to go confront a certain someone.

Kitty turned to Julia and swatted her in the arm.

"Why did you say that?!"

Julia winced, rubbing her arm. She had no idea Kitty could punch so hard.

"What? All I did was tell him the truth," she replied, defending her own actions. But Kitty was having none of it.

"Nick's been completely lost ever since he got back and heard about Callie!" Kitty wailed. "He's been looking for something to do!"

"So what?" Julia still didn't get what the big deal was.

"Now you're telling him that his girlfriend may have gotten attacked by terrorists! He was a wreck before, but he wasn't doing anything reckless!" Kitty began pacing back and forth. But the pacing was getting her nowhere.

"Nick's gonna do something crazy, I'm sure of it!" She decided, charging out of the room. "I need to go stop him!"

Julia barely had time to blink before Kitty disappeared. For a girl with such short legs, she could really run fast when the moment called for it.

Sango sighed. "This is terrible," she muttered. "We're all falling apart."

Their friend group had remained strong through a lot of difficult events. But this whole mess in the Orre Region was causing them to fray.

Reiner and Nikita, meanwhile, were enjoying themselves, completely oblivious to the strain their friends' relationships were going through.

"So are you going to enter the Pokeathlon Competition?" Nikita asked. She and Reiner were getting lunch at the Snorlax Commons.

"Yeah, I think so," Reiner said. "I mean, my pokemon are definitely getting better, but the thing is… well, I need to train them more."

"I guess that's true," she nodded.

"I feel like a couple of 'em are on the cusp of evolution," Reiner continued. "I'm feeling the same tingle I did before Scipio evolves."

"That would be great!" Nikita gushed. "Just imagine if one of your pokemon evolved in the middle of the Pokeathlon?! How cool would that be?!"

"Cool, for sure, also really inconvenient!" Reiner laughed. "You should have seen what Scipio was like after he evolved! Sure, he managed to clinch a win against Blake thanks to that evolution, but afterwards? He was so unused to walking upright that it took a while to really move properly, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think I get it," Nikita laughed. "Not exactly the sort of thing you want to have happen in the middle of an athletic competition."

"You got that right," Reiner agreed. "Still experience is experience, and my pokemon will have a lot of preparation and practice, so who knows? Maybe one or two will evolve after the event."

It was something to consider, anyway.

"What about you?" He asked. "Are you going to be entering?"

Nikita scowled. "Not a chance."

"Oh? Why not?" Reiner asked, surprised to hear that response. "It would be fun, something we could do together."

"Because I'm a nerd," Nikita said plainly. "I am NOT going to be doing an athletic's competition with my pokemon."

"…Ah." She raised a good point. Reiner hadn't even considered that.

Nikita sighed.

"Look, it's fun, yeah, but I'm not the type to go running or climbing with my pokemon, I'm just not," she said, shaking her head. "I get winded when I jog for more than a couple minutes."

Nikita's slender figure was a result of a complex mixture of genetics and studying so much she skipped meals, taking care of her body was completely unrelated.

"Besides," she continued, patting the pitch black pokemon egg in her lap. She carried it with her at all times these days, not sure when, or if, it would ever hatch. "I only have five pokemon, and you need a full team of six to enter."

And then a loud crack echoed across the courtyard as the shell of the egg began to break apart in her hands.

Oh? What could this be? Could it be that Nikita's egg that she won as a prize months ago is finally starting to hatch? What pokemon could be inside it? And while they're taking care of that issue, what about the other students getting ready for the Pokeathlon? Are they prepared? What's Nick going to do? And is Sango right? Is their friend group starting to fracture? Can anyone put it back together if it does?