Blake managed to defeat his brother! He must be riding high on life right now! It may be a while before things get back to normal, but we don't have time to take it slow! After all, the Pokeathlon Competition is right around the corner! And in the meantime, he's probably going to be hounded by a lot of fans for managing to defeat Kanone, who everyone thought was impossible to overcome! Plus, he also has an interview with Dakota as well…
Tambry96bj: Yeah, he definitely deserves some congratulations here. He really did his best, and managed to win!
KedharS: And she may never find out, which is the best part.
Hyphenman: Yeah, a 6 vs. 6 with Kanone would definitely be exciting. There's no way of knowing when that might happen, though, 3 years is a pretty conservative estimate. It took everything Blake had just to beat ONE of Kanone's pokemon, after all. Taking on his entire team would be a pretty difficult endeavor, that's for sure. But he'll probably get there someday. In the meantime, he has other stuff he has to focus on, like his interview.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1285
Blake was in the process of healing up his pokemon at the Pokemon Center when Cynthia greeted him with a flying hug that was more like a tackle. He was nearly knocked off his feet in surprise, having to balance himself against the counter.
"You did it!" Cynthia exclaimed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You actually did it! You won! You beat him!"
"I-I know I did, you don't have to yell," Blake said, trying to pry the redhead off of him. But Cynthia's grip was too tight.
"It went exactly as we planned! That's the coolest part!" Cynthia gushed, squeezing down on him even tighter.
"Yes," Blake smiled. "Yes, it did." He was still riding the high a bit himself. He couldn't believe he was actually able to defeat his brother in a pokemon battle.
Then he raised his head and saw the others coming in.
"Here again, huh?" Reiner asked, looking around as they entered the Pokemon Center.
"Oh, Reiner! Nikita! Back so soon, I see?" A girl in a nurse's outfit walked up to them with a big smile on her face.
At least, Blake thought it was a girl.
"Reiner, I had no idea you knew such a pretty girl!" Cynthia gushed, finally letting go of Blake to go say hello.
Nikita's jaw dropped in shock.
"W-Well, I didn't mean… um…" Cynthia realized she'd said something kind of rude. Her relationship with Nikita wasn't anywhere close to the level where she could make joking remarks like that, after all, even if it had been on accident.
"Cynthia Fafnir, eh?" The nurse laughed. "You've been in here more than enough times. And yet you never hit on me before now." She leaned in smiling coquettishly. "What's changed since then, I wonder? Because your friend seems interested?"
Nikita turned to Reiner with a glare and Reiner scowled.
"Excuse me, I don't remember saying I was interested," he replied. "I'm not, in ANY way, interested in going out with you, Jo."
The girl, who was very much not a girl, placed his hand over his chest and winced. "Ugh, your words wound me, Reiner. How could you say such painful things?" He wiped a tear from his eye and sniffled a little.
Reiner rolled his eyes.
"He's always doing that," Julia griped. "Reiner's the biggest jerk in the world."
Reiner stared sourly at her, but didn't say anything. With Julia it was better to not engage.
Kitty, as usual, stepped between the two to play peacemaker. "Julia, it's fine, let's not make a scene, okay?" She pleaded.
Julia backed off while still giving Reiner the stink-eye.
"So wait, you're friends with Reiner?" Nick asked curiously. While not as insensitive about it as Julia or Cynthia, he had to admit he was surprised that someone as pretty as this was flirting so boldly with his friend. Especially with Reiner's girlfriend right there!
"Oh, we're the very best of friends!" Jo laughed, intertwining their arms.
"And Nikita… you're okay with that?" Cynthia asked, surprised. "Wow, I didn't know you could be so… accommodating."
Nikita had previously expressed worry at the fact that Reiner had female friends. It was one of the things that had always made her insecure about their relationship. Kitty wasn't a problem (as a lesbian) but she'd been nervous about the other girls.
Julia's dislike of Reiner and Sango's disinterest in men in general (except, as Nikita learned, in regards to Blake) had been enough to reassure her, but there was a reason her relationship with Cynthia was still a little bit rocky.
The redhead couldn't help it though. She was the biggest flirt in the world. But it made sense that she was so shocked Nikita was tolerant of another girl inserting herself into Reiner's life.
Which is why Nikita made sure to clarify things.
"Jo is a boy."
Cynthia's jaw hit the floor.
"Really?" Blake asked, surprised. "A boy?"
"Yes he is," Nikita confirmed with a nod. "You can tell because he didn't fall in love with you immediately."
Cynthia burst out laughing at that, her initial shock completely forgotten. "Dude, for real?" She skipped around Jo, getting a good look at him from every angle. No matter how she saw him, he seemed like a girl.
Except for one thing.
"…Well, he doesn't have breasts, so I guess that makes sense." Cynthia had very little interest in flat chests. She liked big, bouncing boobies or firm pecks.
You could probably have written a psychology textbook about her tastes, but that was neither here nor there.
"Jo, you're supposed to be working, not flirting," Jo's sister snapped from the counter. She wasn't exactly thrilled at her little brother being the center of attention like this. "Come on."
"Yeah, sis," Jo sighed, trudging back to the counter.
Now that things had cooled down, Blake finally realized there was someone from their usual group who wasn't here.
"Wait, where's Sango?" He asked, looking around.
Cynthia winced. "Sango, um… she said she wasn't going to come."
Blake was surprised to hear that, but at the same time, he wasn't. Given the state of their relationship over the last few days, it made sense that Sango would want to keep her distance. But it still made him sad.
He'd managed to defeat Kanone. Couldn't that be enough of an olive branch for the other girl? I suppose she's still upset about everything that happened, he thought. The idea made his chest ache.
Sango was one of his closest friends. In a way, she was more of a best friend to him than Cynthia was. While he and the redhead were so often on the same wavelength and were rivals for life, sharing a love of pokemon battles and challenging one another to grow stronger, with Sango it was just… different, somehow.
They had very little in common, but they just sort of clicked. He enjoyed spending time with her. And when he'd learned about her crush on him, he'd felt crushed too, because he knew that things would become uncomfortable between the two of them.
And now that had come to pass. Not in the way he'd anticipated, but in a tangible way, no doubt. He had to deal with the fact that his relationship with Sango was potentially damaged beyond repair, and that wasn't something he wanted to face.
"What happened between you two?" Cynthia asked. She had been there that night, so she knew that Blake knew about Sango's feelings. And she was more than perceptive enough to tell that something had changed between the two of them.
She leaned in close and whispered into Blake's ear, "you didn't tell her about that, did you? Or, well…" Cynthia was trying to dance around the word "confess" but there was no need.
Blake shook his head. "It's not about what happened in Hoenn," he assured her.
"What happened in Hoenn?" Kitty asked. She hadn't been trying to eavesdrop, but she'd just sort of walked into it.
"Look, it's not important," Blake said, shaking his head. They were getting off track. He was here to heal his pokemon, not be given the third degree.
"Yeah, it's really not," Cynthia said, desperate to come to Blake's aid. The last thing anybody needed right now was for Sango's secret feelings for Blake to become not so secret. That would probably ruin their relationship forever, especially if she learned that it came from him.
"Is it about Sango?" Julia asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because if you ask me, that seems pretty important."
"Well…" Blake looked helplessly to Cynthia, who shrugged back. Neither knew what to say in this situation.
And Julia was merciless about it. "She's been weird for the last few days," she continued. "Always so gloomy and secretive, and she's been disappearing as often as you two have. Only she doesn't have a big brother she's challenging to a pokemon battle in front of the whole school. So what's the deal here, huh?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.
"It's… well…" Blake was just about ready to come clean and admit to the fight that he'd had with Sango earlier that week.
But then salvation came in the most unlikely of forms.
"Where is he?! Where's Blake?!" The doors to the Pokemon Center burst open and a flash of pink caught everyone's eye. A certain reporter rushed into the center with a camera in her hand and a look of determination in her eye.
"Da… Dakota?" Blake stammered, shocked to see the other girl glaring at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't tell me you forgot!" Dakota gasped in shock. She waved her camera in his face. "Our deal! You were going to give me an exclusive interview, remember?!"
Blake gasped. Actually, he had forgotten that.
"I'd suggest just getting it over with," Akira said, coming into the Pokemon Center behind her with a sheepish Serefina in tow. "It beats having her bug you about it for the rest of time. Just give her some sound bites and she'll go away."
"Hey!" Dakota scowled at him. "Not nice!"
Serefina swatted Akira in response, shooting him a dirty look. Akira rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine," he mumbled. "Anyway. As I was saying-"
"Dakota, you're amazing!" Blake said, hugging the girl before she even knew what to think. "Let's go. Interview, now!"
"Um, uh… I-I have a boyfriend!" Dakota shook herself free. "Contact is a no-no!"
"Blake…" Akira glared at the younger boy, but Blake didn't even care. He was too grateful to Dakota for pulling his nuts out of the fire.
"Sorry guys!" Blake called over his shoulder as he practically dragged Dakota out of the Pokemon Center. "I have an interview, it's really important! I need to go!"
And with that, he was gone, leaving an irritated Julia behind. Akira followed after the two of them with a frown on his face.
Julia turned to Cynthia and scowled. "I don't suppose you know anything about what's going on between Blake and Sango?" She asked.
It took all of Cynthia's self-control to not spill the truth. But she managed it.
In no small part because someone called out to her five seconds before she was about to give into Julia's piercing stare.
"Cynthia Fafnir?" Joyce called from the counter. Cynthia skipped over.
"Yep! That's me! How can I help?" She chirped, relieved to not be interrogated by Julia herself. Blake had the right idea in running away, the black-haired girl was scary!
"This Breloom is yours, right?" Joyce asked, setting down a pokeball in front of her. "I know Blake was using it, but he IS your pokemon, yeah?"
"Yep, you bet he is!" Cynthia said, snatching the pokeball up and rubbing it against her cheek. "Good ol' Tristan! You're a big hero now, that's what you are. So how's he doing?"
"He's doing fine," Joyce said. "You're free to take him home with you if you like."
Cynthia was stunned. "You mean… you don't need to keep him overnight, even? But he fought so hard against Kanone's Samurott!"
"You're telling me," Joyce nodded. "That Samurott is something special. Even when she was fighting her strongest, taking down Blake's pokemon left and right, she still was holding back."
Cynthia's heart sank. "What do you mean 'holding back'?" She asked worriedly. "Are you saying… Kanone didn't let Blake win, did he?"
That thought was a dreadful one. Blake had tried so hard to defeat his older brother. If he learned Kanone had let him win, he would be crushed!
Joyce shook her head. "Oh, no, nothing like that, that's not what I meant!" She assured the other girl. "What I mean is that the way Kanone and his Samurott fought, it was with great care for the wellbeing of their opponents. I haven't seen anything like it before!"
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, confused and curious.
"All of that Samurott's strikes were done to places that heal very easily for pokemon," Joyce said. "She must have made sure even in the heat of the battle that when she was knocking out Blake's pokemon, they wouldn't be too damaged after the fact. So they're all healthy enough to go home with Blake, once we finish our checkups!"
"Whoa, that… whoa." Julia didn't know what else to say. The thought that a pokemon as powerful and brutal as Sammy had managed to not only defeat four of Blake's pokemon (and Tristan) but also did so while taking considerable care not to grievously injure them, to boot?
It was honestly awe-inspiring.
No wonder Kanone's such a strong trainer, Reiner thought. Being able to control his Samurott so well. And that Samurott, too, being able to execute such a complex method of attack so flawlessly… those two are really unnatural.
He was impressed from the bottom of his heart.
"Aargh, I can't take it!" Cynthia wailed. The anxiety she'd been feeling was finally starting to leak out, now that everything had settled down. "Why does Blake get to do something as awesome as fight against Kanone Harker?! It's just not fair!"
Everyone stared at her like she was crazy.
"I want to fight him, too!" She continued. "I'm tough! I'm even tougher than Blake, I could totally defeat him!"
"Is that right?"
Cynthia froze at the mirthful voice behind her and whirled around to see Kanone walk into the Pokemon Center with a smile on his face. His attendant, Rin, followed behind him, as stony as he was warm and inviting.
"K-Kanone!" Cynthia gasped, turning pale. Then she immediately brightened. "Did you come here to challenge me?" She asked cheekily. "Because I'm really good, I'll have you know! I even beat your brother a few times!"
"Wasn't it only once?" Reiner asked.
"I've beat him more than once!" She snapped. "And it was a full six on six battle, too! Which is better than he's ever done!"
"I don't really care about that, though," Kanone laughed. "No, sorry, but no battles today. Sammy needs some time to rest after that last exchange."
He walked over to Joyce and set a pokeball down in front of her. The nurse gasped in awe, staring down at the pokeball resting on the counter like it was a divine being.
"A-Are you sure about this?" She stammered. "Me, looking after your pokemon…"
Kanone seemed confused. "This is a Pokemon Center, isn't it?" He asked. "Where injured pokemon are brought to be healed?"
"W-Well… yes, it is," Joyce nodded. "But I mean… well… I'm still a student, so… I can't do a very good job, you know?"
She was selling herself rather short. "Joyce, you're one of the most talented students in the nursing field," Serefina reminded her. After Dakota and Akira left, she'd been just sort of standing awkwardly to the side.
"W-Well…" Joyce had to admit that Serefina had a point.
"It's fine," Kanone assured her with a smile. "Sammy is very respectful of new people. You don't have to worry. She's been disciplined very well."
"I-I see," Joyce nodded. "That certainly makes it better, I suppose…"
"And my sister has been disciplined very well herself!" Jo chirped from where he say behind the counter, earning him a deadly glare from Joyce.
"…She's not very respectful of new people, though, sorry for that," he added.
"Time and place!" Joyce hissed, scowling. "But anyway, yes, I'd be happy to look after your pokemon, Kanone!" She nodded excitedly. "If… if you're really okay with that, I mean."
As excited as the nurse practitioner was, she couldn't shake the doubt rearing up in her mind. After all, what if she made a mistake, and Sammy ended up crippled? She should really entrust this to one of the teachers…
She was about to do a 180 when Jo snatched the pokeball out of her hands.
"Don't worry, mister! If my sister's not prepared, then I'll be happy to help!" He grinned, winking at Kanone.
"Fine by me," Kanone nodded, seeing where Jo was going with this.
Joyce grabbed the pokeball back from her brother and pushed him away. "Not on your life!" She scowled. "You don't have the skill to handle a pokemon that's been knocked out! Not to mention poisoned, and infested with leech seed! Leave everything to me!"
With that, she turned and stormed into the operating room, where she could get to work taking care of Sammy.
"…Was that on purpose?" Reiner asked to clarify. "Messing with your sister like that, so she'd take the pokeball from you and get started on helping Kanone's Samurott?"
Jo glanced at Reiner and winked. "Aww, you know me so well!" He giggled.
Reiner rolled his eyes.
Cynthia nudged Nikita in the side. "So look… I know he's a guy, but… are you REALLY okay with this? I mean, the way the mood's going…"
Nikita turned to Cynthia, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth flopped open. She couldn't believe what the redhead had just suggested.
Well, you never know, Nikita. Jo might have a penis but he's still pretty cute. Maybe there's a chance there after all… you better be careful or he might sneak in while you're not looking! But anyway, things are definitely winding down after the match with Kanone. Hopefully everyone will be ready for the Pokeathlon Competition tomorrow! This is going to be a fun event, and hopefully Blake will finally manage to get through to Ayame!