The preliminaries are finally over! 16 students have made it to the main competition! But who managed to survive the preliminaries? What will the main competition entail? We've got a lot of stuff left to explain, so this is a pretty detail-focused chapter. But it should give a good idea of what the remainder of the competition will look like. Remember to review!

KedharS: The main event will be pretty crazy, I can say that much.

Venoms Cross 2: You can thank Serefina's creator, Duskzilla, for that!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1306

It took a moment for everyone to process what had happened, but it took slightly longer for Joyce, who hadn't expected her brother to do something like that.

When her brain finally caught up, she was pissed.

"Jo, what the hell?!" She exclaimed, glaring murder at her effeminate sibling. "Why did you just yank my headband off like that?! I thought we were working together on this!"

Jo tilted his head to the side and smiled innocently. "Well, I mean, we were down to only 17 people, right? So if I take your headband then I automatically make it into the main competition! And besides, we would be opponents then anyway, right? So this was really the best option for everybody involved, see?"

"NOT FOR ME!" Joyce exclaimed.

Jo side and put his hands on his hips in exasperation. "Sis, if you keep getting upset, you're going to get wrinkled, you know? If you like, I can recommend a good moisturizer."

Joyce seethed as her brother laughed to himself. Seeing that the appropriate number of contestants had made it into the next round of the tournament, Leanne called an end to things.

"And with that, we have our 16 finalists making it into the next round!" She announced. She used her pad to type something in, and the broadcast screen changed from showing live footage of the event to a display of the trainers who'd made it to the next round. As their faces appeared, she announced each one in turn.

Before she could start, Lila had to make one thing clear. "The order we announce doesn't matter, right?" She clarified with Darla.

"That's right," Darla nodded. "There's no special meaning to it whatsoever! We're just announcing their names in alphabetical order!"

By this point, the students in the sky had already touched down and the contestants had already returned all their pokemon to their pokeballs. They knew they'd all made it in, but as they convened in front of the viewscreen they still held their heads up with pride, waiting for their names to be announced.

While that was happening, Raizer got out of his seat.

"You're leaving already, is it?" Alcea asked, raising her eyebrow in surprise.

Raizer shrugged. "I mean, Willa lost. I need to get Zera back from her. Not much point in staying, right?" He asked.

Alcea nodded. "Oui, I suppose not…"

Raizer headed off as Leanne began her announcements. "Number One: Andrea!"

Andy's name flashed up first, and the camera focused on her grinning face. She flashed a piece sign at it in response.

"Hiyahoo! First place! I've practically won this already!" She chortled.

Darla smacked her face in frustration. "No, that's not how it works! I just finished explain- oh, forget it, who cares?"

She turned to Leanne, who continued her announcement.

"Number Two: Ayame!" She declared.

Ayame's name appeared next, and she made a sour expression. She whipped her head over to the announcer's box.

"Number Two?! You put me in second place?!" Ayame roared, glaring daggers at Darla and Lila (but leaving Leanne alone). She jammed her finger at Andy, who was still celebrating her victory. "Are you telling me I lost to HER?!"

"Do you jocks have rocks in your brains?!" Darla shouted into the microphone, breaking character. "I already told you, what your ranking is on this board doesn't matter! It's not a big deal, so stop making it one!"

Leanne sighed, and rolled her eyes.

"Number Three: Blake!"

Blake was smart enough to realize that there was no point in the ranking. The order didn't really matter to begin with.

Andy had other thoughts.

"Oh my gosh! Blake, you and Ayame are right next to each other in the rankings!" She gushed, hearts practically flashing in her eyes. "That's the most adorable thing I've ever seen!"

Ayame's eye twitched and she held back a scream. Darla and Lila both sighed, relieved that, at least, no one made a big deal about Blake's ranking, because it absolutely didn't matter.

Until it mattered.

"Number Four: Cynthia!"

"WHAT?! I'm behind Blake?!" Cynthia exclaimed, her jaw dropping. "But I stole way more people's headbands! This isn't fair! This was totally my chance to tie up our scores and prove I'm better than he is! Fraud! I call fraud!"

"Do you people not listen!?" Darla screeched into the microphone, not even attempting to restrain her temper at this point.

Cynthia sheepishly stuck out her tongue and scratched her head, winking at the camera.

"Is it just me or do we have a lot of girls at this school who are idiots?" Lila muttered under her breath, conveniently ignoring that she often was forced to play the part of one of those "idiots". Darla nodded in agreement.

Leanne sighed. The sooner she got through this, the better. "Number Five: Dakota!"

"As expected!" Dakota smirked, taking out her glasses and sliding them up her nose to give her a haughty look. "Someone of my caliber would obviously score in the top 5! And that's without even being an athlete! There's no stopping talent, I guess!"

Serefina rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Darla, though, didn't lose her temper. That's what Dakota was waiting for. She knew full well that the former-redhead didn't misunderstand, she heard everything. Always. No, she was trying to send the two of them over the edge so she could get a story.

And Darla had no interest in playing ball.

"Moving on," Leanne sighed. "Number Six: Daryl!"

A silence fell over the stands. Even Dakota had somehow gotten more applause.

"…Who?"

Daryl sighed. Once again, he had been forgotten. He'd been in the competition the entire time, but somewhere along the way, everyone had forgotten about him. Apparently even the cameraman, because none of his footage was even recorded.

Lila and Darla glanced at each other and shrugged. Neither had anything to say on the subject, so they turned things back to Leanne.

"Number Seven: Evangeline!"

More silence. Who was Evangeline?

"Ange," Ange muttered under her breath.

"Err… sorry. Ange. Thank you for that correction!" Leanne cleared her throat as Ange's information appeared on the screen, alongside camera footage of a blonde who was very much not amused with any of this.

"Okay, Number Eight," Leanne began, trying to move past her mistake. "Ian!"

Ian grinned and waved at the camera.

Chloe tried to cheer, but she didn't exactly have a lot of experience, so her voice came out like a squeak. Not that it mattered, because even her loudest cheers would have been drowned out by Donoma's vocal support of the boy she liked.

Chloe's heart sank and she shrank back a little, embarrassed that she had gotten upstaged by Donoma again.

It's obvious I'm outclassed, she thought. I should just give up at this point.

"Okay, Number Nine: Jo!" Leanne continued.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Jo cheered, pumping his fist into the air.

"Scumbag…!" A voice called out from the distance. He ignored his sister's jeers and focused on his victory.

"Number 10: Kate!" Even Leanne sounded surprised to hear that, and she wasn't the only one. A lot of people were shocked that scrawny Kate had made it to the main competition.

"Spectacular," Alcea murmured. When Kate had expressed her interest in joining the competition, Alcea had been surprised. Normally, the sour-faced girl wasn't the type of person to do those sorts of things. But that surprise couldn't compare to how she felt now.

She had never imagined that her friend would get this far.

Kate really must have changed a lot after her study abroad, Alcea appreciated, smiling. It's almost like she's become a completely different person.

"I-I did it…" Kate was surprised. She'd entered this competition because she wanted to show off how well-trained her Poison type pokemon were, but she hadn't expected to get this far. She'd gotten further than she'd had in any battle tournament in the past.

Her chest swelled with pride, and for once she actually smiled- not that the camera captured that. After all, a picture of Kate smiling might cause the faces of the audience to melt off.

"Number Eleven!" Leanne moved on, "Marion!"

"Whoopie!" Marion cheered. "I made it in! All thanks to the help of my fishy friends!"

It was honestly astounding to see her so fired up about getting into the main competition, mainly because no one had any serious doubt that she wouldn't be able to. After all, she was one of the Daevas and had immense respect from the students in the Ranger Course AND the students in the Caretaker Course.

Someone like her winning should have been expected, frankly.

Sango smiled, and nodded in appreciation of Marion's accomplishment. Just because no one else thought it was a big deal, that didn't mean it wasn't. Marion tried her hardest at everything (unless fishing got in the way) so it only made sense that she'd be excited about her success in this competition, as well.

"Next, Number Twelve: Nick!" Leanne announced, and the crowd went wild.

…Well, Callie went wild. But she was loud enough to basically account for the entire stadium occupancy anyway.

"He did it!" She cheered. "Oh, he did it! I just knew he would! He's amazing! Way to go, Nick! You're just the best, I love you!"

Nikita gave a polite smile to Callie and clapped, applauding his hard work. It was the least she could do to support her friends.

Nick blushed. He could actually here her voice from here. And his blushing, sheepish expression happened to be what the camera caught.

He was just as surprised to have made it out of the preliminaries as Kate was. He wouldn't have been able to do it without help from Julia and Reiner though, and he knew that. He'd come a long way, but it was due to no small shortage of good fortune he'd been able to break into the top 16 in this last preliminary event.

Leanne moved on. "Number Thirteen: Reiner!"

This time it was Nikita's turn to cheer. But she had the decorum to keep her voice down a little lower than Callie's shriek, out of respect for the others' eardrums. That didn't mean she wasn't thrilled, though. Reiner was doing great!

Reiner couldn't make Nikita's voice out of the crowd the way Nick could with Callie's. Because the other cheers from people in the stands were at about the same volume. But he knew her voice was among them, and that was enough to motivate him to keep his head held high.

Then it was time for the next competitor.

"Number Fourteen: Sango!"

Elaina would have cheered for Sango, but she didn't need to. A lot of other people were cheering for her already, including a lot of her friends down below.

"That's my girl!" Cynthia applauded, flashing her a thumbs' up.

"Come on, was there really any doubt?" Reiner laughed. "With how much you work out, there's a good chance you'll win this whole thing!"

Sango was smiling. But out of the corner of her eye, she focused on Blake. He didn't seem upset. He clearly was happy for her.

But it still made her sting that he didn't cheer her on like the others.

I suppose it makes sense, she admitted to herself. After all, we're fighting right now. But I still really would have liked him to cheer for me…

She made sure not to let the pain she felt at her feud with Blake show on her face. She kept her smile the whole time, hugging Silver to her cheek and spinning around with joy.

Leanne's voice carried a lot of pride as she announced the next competitor to make it to the main competition. "Number Fifteen: Serefina!"

Serefina held her head up with pride as cheers and applause shook the stadium. And not just from horny boys happy that they'd get to see her chest bouncing around in workout gear, either. She was the rising star of the Caretaker Course, and she had a lot of support.

She glanced at the others, but her focus was mainly on Ayame. Of the sixteen students, they probably had the best shot out of anyone else to win this entire thing. And comparing herself with Ayame… that put a massive amount of pressure on her shoulders. But she didn't let it way her down.

"You seem so happy, Serefina… so proud…" A voice whispered in her ear and Serefina tensed up. She turned towards the owner of the voice and saw Sylvia standing behind her, a sickly-sweet smile on her face. The pokemon she'd used, Hoopa, had long-since disappeared.

"I'm serious," Sylvia continued. "Getting to the main competition, that's really something." She narrowed her eyes, and Serefina couldn't mistake the malice she saw in them.

"I hope you have a very good time."

Serefina felt a shiver run down her spine. She hadn't intended to turn Sylvia into her enemy, she'd just been sticking up for her friends.

But as nice of a person as she might have been, and as much as it killed her to admit, she was starting to regret the fact that she'd done so.

And that thought alone made her sick to her stomach.

"And finally, our last competitor to make it into the main competition, Number Sixteen: Sylvia!" Leanne announced. Sylvia's name appeared on the broadcast screen alongside footage of her face. Her smile was serene and impeccable, but anyone who knew her would be able to see something dark lying underneath it. To reflect that, the applause she received was much more hesitant.

"Now then," Leanne continued, "I'll leave the rest up to my young associates here." She nodded to Darla and Lila, who took control of things.

"Wow, Darla, this is so amazing, don't you think?" Lila gushed.

"You said it, Lila!" Darla agreed. "Look at all these talented students, having raised their pokemon so well! I really see why each one of them made it out of the preliminaries!"

In truth she had serious doubts about at least a third of them, but there was no way she was saying that out loud.

"So what's next for everyone, Darla?" Lila asked. "Surely they won't move onto the main tournament right away?"

"Not at all, Lila!" Darla shook her head. "No, like we said before, this is a three-day competition! And we've just finished the preliminaries on Day 1! That means we'll move onto our main tournament tomorrow! But until then, everyone has earned a chance to rest!"

"Oh, phew!" Lila wiped her forehead in exaggeration. "Does that mean I can finally go somewhere with air conditioning?"

The crowd burst out laughing at her joke and Darla rolled her eyes while she grinned, keeping up a good attitude.

"You bet you can, Lila," she nodded. "But before that, we need to explain how the Pokeathlon Competition will be structure from here on out!"

Lila snapped her fingers. "Drat!"

The crowd laughed again, and so did Darla.

"The way this works, is we'll be dividing the sixteen students who made it to the main competition into brackets of four," Darla explained. "The brackets will be decided completely at random! Then, those four will compete in a three-event Pokeathlon!"

"Three events?" Lila gasped. "How will we ever choose?"

"That's simple!" Darla said. "Each Pokeathlon Event will be assigned to a special type of condition that event stimulates! The conditions are Speed, Power, Skill, Stamina, and Jump!"

"I don't like Jump, I'm more of a Weekly Shonen Magazine kind of person, the romances are better," Lila admitted.

Darla gave her a side-eyed stare.

"…Moving on, some events may be in multiple Pokeathlons, and that's totally fine. But after consulting with the Pokeathlon Association we've decided on the right events to assign in the Pokeathlon for each bracket! The way it works is that we'll have students in one bracket test for Speed, students in another test for Power, and so on."

"But how will you assign them?" Lila asked, scratching her chin thoughtfully. "that seems really complicated…"

"Simple, we'll do it with a roulette!" Darla explained. The viewscreen shifted to show a roulette wheel spinning in place. On the wheel were the five categories, Speed, Power, Skill, Stamina, and Jump.

"You see," Darla continued, "we wanted to give our audience the opportunity to see all different kinds of events! So we'll only do one Pokeathlon for each category. The students will compete in their assigned events and accrue points! And the person who gets the most points in their bracket wins their event, and can move onto the finals!"

"Oh, I see!" Lila gasped. "So then the fifth event that didn't get assigned to anyone will be the one held in the final round!"

Darla frowned. Lila had gotten ahead of herself, it was Darla's job to announce that part. But she didn't let it get the better of her.

"That's right, Lila!" Darla confirmed. "For example, if the four brackets are assigned, Power, Skill, Stamina, and Jump for their categories, then the remaining condition, Speed, will be what's essential for the finale!"

"Oh not!" Lila gasped. "What if you built a team focused for Power, but have to get something like Speed? That would be really bad!"

"It's the reason you need a balanced team," Leanne cut in, being more of an expert on pokemon conditions than Darla. "Of the six pokemon that our trainers entered into the competition, we encouraged them to have a wide variety of skills so that they could properly adapt to whatever type of event they would end up competing in! It's a vital aspect of training pokemon, making sure that your pokemon are versatile and can handle a lot of different situations!"

Blake nodded. He felt like the six pokemon he was using were very versatile in terms of what they were capable of.

"Wow, this whole thing sounds really excited!" Lila lied. The truth was that she couldn't care less; sports were boring.

"Now then! Without further ado, let's see how these sixteen will be divided!" Leanne declared. "Here are the brackets for the Pokeathlon Competition tomorrow!"

Group A:

Ayame

Ange

Daryl

Kate

Group B:

Ian

Cynthia

Reiner

Jo

Group C:

Serefina

Sylvia

Dakota

Nick

Group D:

Blake

Andy

Marion

Sango

And those are our four groups! Each of these groups will be competing against each other in the Pokeathlon! Some characters may have a lot more of a challenge than others, though. Who will get which events? Who will manage to make it to the finals? Does anyone have any guesses as to which four students the finals will contain?