With the issues with Kanone now resolved, things are going to be a lot simpler at the Pokemon Academy, hopefully. But there's still another big event on the horizon! That's right, the Pokeathlon Competition is just a day away! It's going to be a fun event where everyone competes with their pokemon, even trainers that aren't skilled at battles! But before we can get to that, we need to handle some other business, first. Important business.

KedharS: Yeah, it was definitely a nice cooldown, that's for sure. But you're right, it's time for some more craziness. And more drama, too.

Dalton akumu: Yep, there's comedy abound when it comes to Dokukage, and Ayame's not a slouch in that area herself.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1286

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kitty asked warily.

"Of course I am," Blake said. He had finished up his interview with Dakota by this point and returned to the Pokemon Center to collect his pokemon. By this point, everyone else had already gone. Only Kitty had remained waiting back, because she wanted to talk to Blake.

Mainly, to discourage what he was about to do.

She could be a bit of a mom that way, even if she was a good two feet shorter than her friend.

"Blake…" Kitty sighed. She really wanted him to take care of himself and his pokemon. But she couldn't quite find the right words to convince him of that. "Your pokemon are exhausted, I don't think entering them in the Pokeathlon Competition is the best thing for them," she warned.

Blake sighed. "I know they worked hard," he agreed. "And you're right, we haven't been training like everybody else has, so they aren't exactly what you'd call the most prepared pokemon in the world," he admitted.

Kitty frowned. "So then why-?"

"It's because of Ayame," he answered. He stopped and turned to look her in the eye. Kitty tensed up, her eyes widening in surprise.

"A-Ayame?" Kitty asked.

"You know, right?" He clarified. "About how Ayame forgot about me entirely?"

Kitty nodded sadly. "I heard, yeah."

"Well, Olivia has this theory," Blake said. "She believes that if I enter the Pokeathlon Competition and compete against Ayame directly, that might do something to bring her memories back," he explained. "Something about seeing me up close or intimate, or I don't know. But what I do know is what I've seen with my own eyes, and I've seen Ayame's memories return."

Kitty gasped. "R-Really?!" She asked, shocked.

Blake nodded. "It wasn't exactly that easy," he sighed. "But they did come back, at least for a second. But it needs to be something stronger, more intense. So I wanted to focus on this Pokeathlon Competition, because maybe… maybe Olivia's right. Maybe there's something I can do to bring her memories back for good, you know?"

Kitty frowned. That seemed like a long shot. But she wasn't about to tell Blake not to take it. "Good luck, then," she mumbled. Blake stared at her. She still looked anxious about something.

"What else is it?" He asked. "Why are you so… I don't know?"

Kitty winced. "Wh-What do you mean?" She asked.

"Is there something else bothering you?" Blake clarified. "If there is, you can tell me. I'd like to think we have the kind of relationship where we can confide in one another, don't you?"

Kitty nodded. She walked side by side with Blake now, staring out over the grass. The sun had started to set, casting the field in an orange glow.

"It's about Sango."

Blake's response to that was a story in and of itself. He flinched, looking down, and slowed his walking pace.

"I knew something was going on," Kitty frowned. "You two have been acitng weird for days. What's the matter?"

"It's complicated," Blake said, unable to look her in the eye. He couldn't explain any further, not without messing things up significantly.

Kitty frowned. She didn't like the sound of that at all!

"I noticed it after the Hoenn trip, actually," she said. "You seemed to be uncomfortable around her even then, when we were heading home."

"Well of course I seemed uncomfortable," Blake frowned. "I'd just gotten the news that Ayame had been in an accident and lost her memories."

Kitty shook her head adamantly. "No, that's not what I mean. You were uncomfortable around Sango. I could tell."

The way Blake winced at that was enough of a tell.

"I see a lot more than people think," Kitty said quietly. "Because nobody's looking at me. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, though. I think I have a pretty good idea."

Kitty was a lot more perceptive than she was given credit for.

"…You walked in on her in the hot spring, didn't you?" She asked.

Blake stared at her, surprised momentarily.

"Yes, yeah, that's it," Blake said. "Only she didn't know at the time. So I ended up telling her a few days ago, and well…"

Yeah, it was a shitty thing to do, lying about the nature of their feud. But he didn't want to disrespect Sango by outing her feelings to a friend.

Kitty nodded, feeling very proud of herself for uncovering the truth. "I'm sure if you just apologize, Sango will forgive you," she assured him with a bright smile. "It's going to be alright! You don't need to worry!"

Blake forced a smile to his face. Kitty really was so sweet and pure. Which made his lie to her sting even more.

"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed.

They continued the walk back to the dorms in silence. Then they arrived at the fork in the road. Blake continued on like normal but Kitty stopped, tugging on his sleeve.

"This, uh… this is me," she said, nodding down the path leading towards Charmander House. Blake paused, taking a moment to reassess. That's right. She spent so much time in Bulbasaur House, sometimes he forgot that she actually lived in an entirely different dorm. He felt like such an idiot sometimes.

"Well, uh… good night," he mumbled out. "And I'll see you tomorrow."

"Oh, I'm going to be entering the Pokeathlon, too!" Kitty called after him. Blake turned around, surprised. He hadn't expected that.

"Wait, for real?" He asked.

Kitty grinned. "Julia is, too. So you're going to have a bit of competition on your hands, Blake!" She teased him with a wry grin.

Blake just nodded numbly, not sure what to say to that. There wasn't a lot he could say, but he knew that he had to be prepared for some stiff competition.

WAP-WAP-WAP-WAP-WAP-WAP!

Blake and Kitty's eyes shot upwards, squinting at the darkening sky. That distinctive sound was familiar! A helicopter?

"What's going on!?" Kitty ran up to Blake as the helicopter passed over their heads, towards the tiny airstrip on the campus. Even though the students often had to charter boats out to the airport of the port city by the Pokemon Academy, that didn't mean other forms of transport were unavailable. The airstrip on campus was just large enough for small planes to take off, and, in this case, helicopters to land.

"I don't know," Blake said, shaking his head. "Although I can't think of very many people who have the money to afford a helicopter at this school. Maybe the faculty?"

That turned out to be an erroneous guess. Because the person waiting at the airstrip for the helicopter to land was, in fact, a student, and one of the few students that made Blake's very exclusive list of people who could afford a helicopter.

The student was Alcea Vermeil.

The redhead didn't care that whipping of the helicopter's blades was messing up her hair, or wrinkling her dress. She waited on baited breath for the vehicle to settle down, so she could greet the people on it.

One person in particular.

The door shuffled open and a certain short-haired blonde got out, nearly falling off due to the discrepancy between her height and how far off the ground the helicopter door was.

A smile spread across Alcea's crimson lips.

"Callie," she said, running over to her friend and scooping her up into her arms.

"H-Hey, Alcea, careful!" Callie blushed. "I'm still a little delicate, you know? My stitches and all that." she patted her chest gingerly to remind the redhead of her injuries.

"Oui, yes, your injuries, is it?" Alcea took a step back, recapturing her decorum. "And you're sure you're alright?"

"She's fine," Rafe said, stepping off the helicopter as well. "I can attest to that, anyway. If she wasn't in good condition, I never would have let her come back home."

Alcea glanced warily at her friend's brother, not quite sure how to respond. While she didn't doubt him outright, Rafe was not exactly the best judge of these sort of things, at least not in her opinion of matters, anyway.

"Oui, I see," she nodded, turning back to Callie. "And you're sure?" She trusted the short girl's judgment a lot more.

"My injuries do still sting a little," Callie admitted sheepishly. "And it'll probably be a while before I'm able to work out strenuously. But hey, I'm here, aren't I? No way Wes and Rui would have let me leave without permission from my doctor to come."

Alcea nodded. She supposed she'd have to accept that as an answer. It seemed a little soon for Callie to be up and about, but as long as she wasn't getting into fistfights, it should be okay.

"No pokemon battles," she warned the shorter girl. "That's what got you into this mess in the first place, remember?"

Callie scowled. But the wound on her chest was a stinging reminder of what she'd been through, and she didn't want to reopen her injuries a second time.

Alcea's lips curled up into a smile. "I'm glad you're feeling better," she said. "Nick will be so thrilled to see you okay, is it?"

Callie turned pale. "Y-Yeah, Nick," she mumbled, nodding. "He will be, huh?"

Alcea frowned. "Is everything alright?" She asked.

Rafe placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. "It's fine," he said, smiling affably to ease Alcea's concerns. "Things are just a little complicated in the feelings department with my little sister, that's all."

"I'll talk to him soon," Callie said, pushing a smile onto her face. As she spoke her wound throbbed, and she winced. "For now… I just want to get some sleep." She yawned. "Believe it or not, a helicopter isn't the best place to get rest."

Alcea nodded. "Well, alright then," she acquiesced. A soft smile returned to her face. "It is good to see you well, is it?"

Callie beamed back at her. "It is, it really is. I'm glad to be back. Thank you!"

And with that, her brother led her off to her dorm, leaving Alcea alone on the airstrip with the idling chopper.

Now alone, her smile shifted to a frown.

She could tell something was up.

"Are you really going to go through with this, little sister?" Rafe asked curiously.

"It's the right thing to do," Callie nodded. Her finger traced down her collarbone, feeling the thick bandages over her wounds. "It wouldn't be fair."

She fished out her phone from her breast pocket, where it had been left untouched for weeks, and began to type out a message to Nick. "We need to talk." With any luck, he would already be asleep, and she wouldn't have to-

Her phone going off nearly made her drop the damn thing in shock.

Fuck! I knew I should have waited! She groaned to herself. She really wanted to confront this issue after a good night's sleep.

No such luck, unfortunately. She accepted the call, forcing a smile to her face. She didn't want to ruin Nick's good mood with her gloominess, he liked it when she was smiling.

"Callie?!" Nick cried. He had already left his bedroom, practically tearing down the hallway. "Are you okay? I haven't heard from you in forever!"

"Yeah, it's me," Callie said, the sweet timbre of her voice causing Nick to stop in his tracks. It just felt nice to hear from her again. He couldn't help the smile creeping up his lips.

"I'm glad," he said. "I, uh… I heard what happened," he added awkwardly, though there wasn't really any good time to bring this sort of thing up. "The accident."

So he thinks it was an accident, huh? I see. Well, let him think that, then. Callie didn't want to turn Nick against Blake if she didn't have to, and telling him that it was Blake's sister that put her in the hospital might result in that.

"Yeah, I was out of commission for a while," she said, trying to laugh it off like it wasn't that big of a deal. "But don't worry, I'm feeling much better now."

"Are you back?" Nick asked, his voice overflowing with hope. "At the Pokemon Academy, I mean? Why didn't you call me before now?"

"I'm back, yeah," Callie nodded. "As for why I didn't call, well… I thought it would be better to meet in person, I guess. Do you think we could-"

"Yeah! Of course!" Nick gushed. "I can meet right now!"

"Oh! Um…" Callie had really been hoping that they could meet tomorrow, actually. Or some other day. But then, she remembered the emails she'd been checking from the school. Something about a Pokeathlon Competition? It was the kind of thing she would have entered herself, if she had been in any condition to do so.

Knowing Nick, he had almost-certainly entered. He had a fondness for events like this.

I suppose there's not really much choice, she thought. Tonight it is, then.

"Yeah, sure, as soon as possible," she nodded. "Can you meet me on the bridge? You know the one, right?"

"Absolutely," Nick nodded. "I'll be there as soon as I can!"

Callie glanced around at her surroundings. She was a lot closer than he was. She'd have a bit of a wait in store.

There was something to take care of, first.

"Rafe, you can head back now," she said, turning to her brother.

Rafe was uncharacteristically serious and attentive, for once. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked. "You could get injured…"

"I'll be fine," she laughed, patting the belt of pokeballs on her waist. "I have my pokemon with me, after all. Even when we were kids, I wasn't some helpless girl who needed your protection, you know, I can handle myself."

Rafe grinned. "I forget sometimes," he admitted sheepishly. "Maybe because you still look like a little kid."

Callie's expression soured into a glare that she aimed at her brother.

"Beat it."

Rafe decided to beat it. That left Callie alone in the dark, with nothing but her thoughts and the river to keep her company.

Soon enough, she arrived at the bridge. It was a very special bridge to her; a bridge that meant a lot to her and Nick. How many times had they walked it together, she wondered? She couldn't even begin to count.

But it meant a lot to him, too. And so did she.

That was obvious by the fact that he had somehow made it there already.

It was astonishing, so astonishing Callie had to rub her eyes and check again to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. But she should have had a good five, ten minute head start getting here. And yet there he was, waiting for her, barely out of breath.

"Callie!" Nick's voice was filled with joy as he moved to hug her. But Callie held up her hands and he stopped himself.

"I get it," she said, flashing him a teary smile. She was so happy to see him she couldn't stop the waterworks. "But you can't hug me too hard, you might open my stitches again! And we don't want that, right?"

Nick nodded, waiting on her like an obedient Growlithe. It made her heart swoon to see all the love and caring in his eyes.

She hugged him, instead. Making sure her embrace was gentle enough to not hurt either one of them.

"It's so good to see you," Nick said, returning the hug. "Are you okay? They said you got injured in the Orre Region…"

"I did," Callie said. "But it's fine. It's not a big deal. I'm alright now, Nick, I promise." She gave him a smile that was only partially a lie. Physically, she was doing fine, even if her wounds still hurt every now and then.

But she was mentally and emotionally drained. She could really use a good night's sleep. And another hug from her boyfriend.

Unfortunately, both were in short supply.

"Like I said," Callie murmured, turning to look out over the river. The moon was reflected gorgeously over the dark water. The sky was clear, painting a shimmering canvas in the night. "We need to talk. It's important."

"…Okay," Nick nodded. For the first time he wasn't letting his joy get the better of him. Now that he could see things more clearly, he was realizing how anxious his girlfriend really was.

There was a strange tension around the two of them, and he didn't like it.

"Is everything… alright?" He asked worriedly. "Can I do anything to help?"

Callie shook her head. "Everything is fine," she lied. "You don't need to worry."

But her tone of voice suggested the exact opposite.

"But like I said… we need to talk." She kept saying that. "We need to talk." She'd said it so many times in such a short window the words stopped feeling real.

It was like she was trying to convince them both by saying it enough.

"…Okay," Nick nodded, feeling his chest ache. The pensive look on her face spoke volumes about what she wanted to talk about.

"We need to talk about breaking up," she whispered, and Nick's entire world came crashing down around him.

What?! Callie wants to break up with Nick!? Why?! They just reunited! What could make her want to do that?! Dang it, this really sucks! We were about to enter the fun Pokeathlon Arc, but now here comes Callie to ruin it for everybody! Why does she want to break up with Nick? He's a great guy! Well, this is going to make everything harder and more awkward, that's for sure.