The preliminaries are getting more intense, and it's clear that our students aren't backing down! At this rate, we'll be on track for some of our favorites to make it out of the preliminaries, but there are still a lot of competitors to go! We'll have to see who actually makes it out, and who gets eliminated right here! Things are getting really exciting!

KedharS: She needs to be more flexible. She's too used to things going the way she wants with her preferred style, and doesn't exactly know how to adapt.

Leppyvstheworld: Well, Marion's fishing rod is practically an extension of her body so it makes sense she can control it well.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1304

Vic's elimination from the preliminaries came as a surprise to a lot of students, but not any who were familiar with her. While normally not a reckless person (she was actually quite methodical when it came to battling) she had underestimated her opponent as she'd been approaching things from the perspective of a trainer battle.

With that in mind, it made sense that someone of Ayame's caliber had been able to defeat her.

"Nicely done, Ayame!" Blake called to her, causing her to flinch. She turned to him with a sour expression on her face.

"Do you really have time to be calling out to me so fucking nonchalantly?" She demanded. While people were giving her a wide berth due to her reputation, Blake received no such consideration, and was under attack from a couple of students.

He could handle himself fairly well, though.

"Ruru, use sticky web!" He ordered. His team may have been driven away from where they'd previously set up shop, but that didn't mean that they couldn't set up more webs in their new territory right by Ayame.

"Gal!" Ruru nodded, releasing a burst of webbing that covered the ground around them. Given the fact that his pursuers were on the backs of pokemon who needed their feet to walk, the tangling spider webs tripped them up and made it difficult for them to move.

"Nicely done!" Blake grinned. "Now, Tara! Vine whip!"

"Snivy!" Tara leapt into action, swinging her vines and grabbing the headband of one of the students, yanking it off with a sharp tug. But the other student deflected the vine headed her way, thanks to her own Bulbasaur's vine whip.

"You'll have to try better than that!" She boasted.

But no, Blake didn't have to try better than that. Because before she could launch a counterattack, her headband was snatched off her by another pokemon.

"Sneasel!" Sari cackled, twirling the headband in her claws. Lana smirked, having caught the other girl by surprise.

"Nice use of thief," Lana complimented her pokemon. While Lana's Comfey may have been her pokemon that stole things most frequently, Sari could do it too.

"Not bad," Ayame mused, glancing at the ground. "She used her Raboot's Fire type attacks to burn away the webbing so her Sawsbuck could get to her target quickly. All three of her pokemon's conditions are suited for speed, so it makes sense to use hit and run tactics like that."

Blake was quick to respond though. "Tara, new target!" He ordered. "Vine whip!"

"Snivy!" Tara nodded, sending another vine towards Lana. But it was pointless.

"Sari, use protect!" She ordered.

"Sneasel!" Sari raised her claw, and a barrier of black energy appeared around Lana and her team, deflecting the attack.

Ayame whistled. "So that Sneasel's capable of offense and defense in a game like this. That's pretty good, I'd reckon."

But Blake wasn't ready to give up just yet.

And neither was Lana, for that matter.

Her stern glare actually surprised him.

"Cerelia!" She shouted. "Use jump kick!"

"Sawsbuck!" Cerelia bellowed, lunging forward. She used her powerful legs to leap into the air, soaring over the sea of webbing spread out around Blake. From the way her pokemon was positioning herself, she'd come crashing down on top of him!

"Ruru, dodge it!" Blake called. Thanks to Ruru's speed, she was able to evade the attack just in time. Otherwise things might have become critical.

Did I do something to piss her off?! Blake wondered, frantically wracking his brain to remember past interactions he'd had with Lana, a girl he could barely remember. He had to have done SOMETHING because Lana was really giving him the stink-eye right now.

"What's the big idea?" Blake shouted. "That was a little too aggressive for something that's just supposed to be a game!"

Ayame couldn't help but agree. As amusing as it might have been to see Blake scramble around, that could have been a big issue if her Sawsbuck had actually landed her hooves on him. She assumed that Lana's pokemon were well-trained enough where that wouldn't happen, but it still seemed pretty reckless of her.

And Lana's glare made it clear that something was up.

"You're not taking this competition seriously, that's the issue!" She snarled, pointing an accusing finger at Blake.

"What? Of course I am!" Blake snapped. But he flinched a little at her accusation. It was the same thing Sango had said to him a few days ago when she accused him of not being serious about trying to help Ayame.

She was on that trip, too… does she know something? Are she and Ayame friends? Come to think of it, I did call Ayame when she was interrogating me before, it could be their friendship started then. Maybe that's why she's so pissed off, because I haven't been doing my best to help restore Ayame's memories? Blake bit his lip. He'd been doing the best he could. But if that's why Lana was mad at him, he couldn't really disagree.

"Listen, I-"

"Everyone here is working hard to succeed, and you're flirting around with your girlfriends!" The ponytail-wearing girl screeched.

Blake stared at her for a second to process what she was saying.

"…Huh?"

"I thought you were dating Ayame Toujou! But it turns out that wasn't enough for you, was it?!" Lana scowled. "You're back to your old tricks again! First it was that tomboy Andrea! You two were oozing sexual tension! And who should come bail you out, but your old flame, Cynthia Fafnir! And don't tell me I didn't see the way you two were going at it! So what's the idea, you ran away because you didn't want to commit, huh? And so you came scurrying back to Ayame!"

Lana burned with righteous indignation. "I couldn't teach you a lesson back in Galar, but this time there's nothing stopping me! My pokemon and I are going to make you pay for playing around with women's hearts!"

Blake didn't know what to say.

Ah, that's right… she was that sort of person…

"Sari, use ice shard!" Lana ordered.

"Sneasel!" Sari raised her claw, firing a swift blast of ice at Blake and his pokemon. Thanks to Sari's impeccable aim not a single chunk of ice got anywhere close to hitting Blake, but they did barrage his Galvantula.

"Gaaaal!" Ruru wailed, scurrying back away from the painfully sharp chunks of ice. But Lana was a woman with a grudge, and she sent Cerelia out to attack.

She wasn't the only woman with a grudge, either.

"Snows! Use your ice beam!" Ayame shouted. She was relying on Snows' ice beam because his Moody ability had improved his condition for special attacks.

"Glalie!" Snows opened his mouth, firing a beam of icy energy at Blake and his team. He was caught in a pincer attack between two talented trainers, and he wasn't sure what to do.

"Rogen! Protect!" So he relied on the only thing he could think of, buying time.

"Boldore!" Rogen dug deep and created a barrier of brown light around his body, shielding Blake and his party from the attacks.

Pressured by Sari's ice shards on one side and Snows' ice beam on the other, the ground around Blake was quickly starting to freeze.

"Ayame, what are you doing?!" He demanded, turning to his sort-of former girlfriend.

Ayame had a bright smile on her face that looked far more suited for Olivia than it did for her. But the atmosphere around her was even colder than her pokemon's icy attacks.

"What's this about flirting with a tomboy?" She asked.

"Uh… you mean Andy?" Blake stammered, confused why Ayame was so aggressively targeting him after something like that.

"Oh, Andy is it?" Ayame's tone turned even colder and her smile seemed frozen to her face. "I thought her name was Andrea? So you two already have nicknames picked out? And what does she call you, I wonder?"

"Wait, are you jealous?" Blake couldn't believe it. Ayame didn't have feelings for him after her memories were lost, that's what she'd told him. But right now she was getting upset because she thought he was flirting with another girl?

That must mean I'm getting through to her! Blake pumped his fist triumphantly. Bit by bit he was starting to wear her down. Before she knew it she'd fall for him again, whether she regained her memories or not!

Unfortunately, whatever budding emotions may have been sprouting up in Ayame's heart, they couldn't compare with the depth of her stubbornness.

"I AM NOT JEALOUS!" She shouted in a very clearly not-jealous fashion. "Snows! Break through that stupid barrier already!"

"G-Glalie!" Snows mumbled, increasing the intensity of his ice beam. Even Ayame's pokemon were starting to get upset by her.

"She's jealous," Lila stated plainly.

"Definitely jealous," Darla agreed.

"It's obvious," Leanne nodded.

"I'M NOT FUCKING JEALOUS!" Ayame shouted out the panel of judges, the veins on her forehead throbbing in irritation.

Lana wasn't jealous, but she was just about as angry as the tomboy. Blake had been hiding from his comeuppance for too long.

"Sari, enough of this," she growled to her Sneasel. "Use feint to knock down that barrier, now!"

"Sneasel!" Sari nodded. Cerelia turned, running parallel to the brown shield, and Sari struck it in just the right place with her claw.

It crumbled away instantly, leaving Blake wide-open for a direct attack.

Ayame grinned in triumph.

"Now-"

It was Ayame's brilliant vision and excellent reflexes that saved her. She caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, and cut herself off before she made a mistake.

"Roll! Protect!" She shouted. A golden barrier appeared around her, and three solid rocks smashed against it. If she'd been a second later they would have hit Snows directly, and at the speed they were going he might not have been able to take it.

"Andy?!" Blake stammered in shock. Andy beamed triumphantly from atop her Rhyperior, winking at Blake.

"Nicely done, Ace!" She patted her Ambipom. "Now, let's see if we can get his back!"

Ayame's eye twitched.

"So it's you, huh?" She scowled. "You're the one who's been flirting with Blake, huh?"

Andy stared at her in confusion.

"Huh? No, you're wrong!" She protested. "I'm not flirting with him!"

"You just saved him!" Lana snapped. "How is that not flirting?!"

"Because it's not? Duh?" Andy looked incredulously at her. "Next you'll be telling me that redheaded girl, Cynthia, was flirting with him!"

"She was!" Lana exclaimed.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure she was," Blake nodded. Not even he could defend Cynthia on that one, pretty much every word out of the girl's mouth could probably be considered a flirtation of some form or another.

"…Ah. I see." Andy scratched her head sheepishly. "Well, don't worry Ayame! I have no interest in stealing your boyfriend!"

"He is NOT my boyfriend!" Ayame snapped. "I'm done messing around with boys!"

A hush fell over the four of them. Blake winced at her harsh words, but he'd gotten used to it at this point.

Andy, on the other hand, looked like someone had told her that her parents had gotten killed in a car crash.

"You… broke up?" She whimpered.

"Um… yes!" Ayame was a little stunned at that reaction herself, it looked like the poor thing was about to cry.

"B-But-! But you two are so good together!" She wailed. "You're adorable! How the hell did you guys break up!?"

Blake and Ayame glanced at each other and sighed in unison.

"It's a long story." Even their response was in sync, much to Blake's amusement and Ayame's frustration.

Meanwhile, Lana was on the sidelines, confused and annoyed.

"What's with all this?" She grumbled. "We should be focusing on fighting here!"

She was about to attack Blake while his guard was down, but she never got the chance. Because a hole in space appeared above her head, and a hand with black nail polish dipped through it, yanking off her headband before she could even blink.

"WHAT?!" Lana's hand shot up to her forehead to figure out what had happened, but the headband, and the hand that had snatched it, were gone.

"What was that!? What even was that?!" Lila exclaimed. "It's like someone just grabbed her headband out of nowhere! That can't be legal!"

"That was Sylvia's arm, wasn't it?" Darla muttered.

"That pokemon of hers… the one she called Hoopa… I remember it came out from one of those portals, didn't it? That looked like the exact same thing," Leanne mused. "So you're right, Darla, it must have been Sylvia Driscoll's work."

"Unbelievable!" Lila puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. "Doing something sneaky like that! It's absolutely not okay!"

Darla rolled her eyes. "Well, it's part of her pokemon's abilities…"

"She raises a point, though," Leanne sighed. "If that girl can just reach through a portal and take anyone's headband that she wants, can it really be said we even have a competition at this point? Otherwise this game will basically become 'people who Sylvia wants to win'."

And that was a scary matter indeed.

Leanne cleared her throat and leaned into the microphone. "Until further notice, it is no longer permitted for any trainer to rely on things like portals. All body parts and pokemon must remain in the same space they occupied."

Lila winced. "Is that going to be enough to cover it?"

None of them knew. Darla sighed. Sylvia really liked to make messes of everything, huh? She couldn't see what the blonde was up to inside her trick room, but no one else still in the game wore dresses like that. Well, one person did, but Donoma wasn't wearing one today.

She was dressed in a P.E. uniform, bloomers and everything, so she could appeal to Ian.

"Toxicroak!" Donoma's Toxicroak swiped away an attacker, keeping the female trainer from getting close to Ian.

"Phew! That was a close one!" Donoma wiped her brow, smiling cheerfully at Ian. "You really need to be careful! She almost got you!"

"Yeah, thanks," Ian nodded, smiling back. "But you know, you don't have to keep helping me out, Donoma. I can do just fine on my own!"

"Don't be silly!" Donoma laughed. "It's better if we're all in this together! It's my pleasure to lend a hand!"

It was her pleasure now, but that wouldn't compare to the pleasure coming her way later. Donoma might have returned to the Pokemon Academy and thus opened up her pool of potential suitors considerably, but given how she was unable to seduce Ian the entire trip, at this point it had become a matter of principle.

She glanced at the sidelines, where Chloe was watching with the other eliminated contestants, and suppressed her smirk.

If she could cut someone else down to size while seducing a cute guy, that would make things even better!

She had a plan, she just needed to find the perfect opportunity to execute it.

And when she saw another girl charging at Ian on the back of a Rhyhorn, she saw her opportunity and struck.

"Go!" She urged her Poison type pokemon. But she didn't want them to use any attacks. They were going to attempt something a bit more direct.

With Condit, her Toxicroak, in the lead, she charged at the girl. Her Salazzle and Toxtricity followed quickly behind, making sure to keep her steady.

All three pokemon threw themselves in the path of the charging Rhyhorn, much to its trainer's surprise. She quickly slammed on the brakes, but that wouldn't be nearly good enough. The pokemon collided and both girls were knocked off their pokemon, tumbling into the ground.

"Donoma!" Ian shouted.

"Oh no, that looked like a bad tumble!" Lila winced. "Are they okay?"

"We're fine!" Donoma scrambled to her feet. She didn't want anyone thinking she'd gotten too injured. "Don't worry!"

"What was that?!" The girl who'd crashed into her exclaimed. "Leaping in front of me like that! We could have both gotten hurt!"

Donoma scowled at her, but remembered she was supposed to be on her best behavior. Her scowl turned into a smile instead, one that unnerved the other girl even more than her scowl had.

"I apologize, but when I saw you were targeting my friend, my body just kind of moved without even thinking about it," she lied through her teeth. "Before I knew it, I'd given my pokemon the order to intercept. I'm sorry."

"Um…" The girl was feeling immense pressure to accept her apology, especially with the students from the Ranger Course coming to make sure she was really okay. She shivered slightly and tried to return Donoma's smile with one of her own.

"N-No, it's fine," she stammered. "I'm sorry too, I should have kept my Rhyhorn under better control… sorry."

The girls returned their pokemon to their pokeballs, and Donoma glanced apologetically at Ian.

"Sorry I messed up," she sighed. "I really wanted to do my best to help, but…"

"Don't be silly!" Ian gasped. He had Diamond lean down so he could speak to Donoma more directly. "You shouldn't be thinking about me right now! Are you okay!?"

"Yeah, I'm really lucky, I guess," Donoma smiled, doing her best to make it look as sheepish as possible.

Ian sighed in relief. "Well, I'm glad. And, uh… thanks. You know, for intercepting her back there." His expression turned stern. "But next time, don't be so reckless about it! Just have your pokemon use an attack!"

"Right, I'll do that!" Donoma nodded, flashing another brilliant smile. She turned and walked off the battlefield with a flick of her hair, winking coyly to a fuming Chloe as she passed.

Donoma may have been eliminated from this competition, but in terms of the one that actually mattered to her she was far ahead of her rival.

Well, a lot of people are starting to get eliminated! Those numbers are dwindling down fast, we can't have very many people left in the competition now! Who will make it to the final sixteen? And from there, who will actually WIN the tournament? It's going to be getting more intense from here, but hopefully we can keep things lighthearted enough!