The preliminaries are finally over! With this, our competitors have earned a well-deserved break! They need some time to rest their pokemon, after all, and prepare for what's coming tomorrow! Let's see what they get up to on their time off. Is anyone using this activity to actually train, or are they all too sore from exerting themselves all day?

KedharS: Just a little bit, yeah. But there's definitely a long way to go. And just because things aren't super-intense doesn't mean that everyone is totally calm about it, either…

Hyphenman: He's so forgettable the announcers forgot he was eliminated already. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Plus I removed that part from the chapter lol.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1308

Cynthia sighed as she returned to her room, and climbed up onto her bed. It was days like this, when she felt sore as hell, that she regretted picking the top bunk. Sango sure had it good. She managed to get up and immediately collapsed, staring up at the ceiling.

This wasn't exactly how she'd wanted her evening to go. She'd thought that they could rent out a room and throw a party to celebrate all their friends who'd made it to the main competition. It was surprising that so many people who'd made it to the next found were people she knew. But then again, Blake, Nick, and Reiner had all made it out of the preliminaries due to their bonds of friendship, so maybe that was why.

The problem was that those bonds of friendship didn't seem to extend past the battlefield. In an odd twist of fate, everyone had each other's backs while fighting to make it out of the preliminaries, but when it came to celebrating together…

Well, everyone had their own thing to do.

After dropping off her pokemon at the Pokemon Center to rest up in preparation for tomorrow (Tristan in particular was pretty exhausted due to having fought an intense battle against Kanone's Samurott the day before) she found that none of her friends wanted to hang.

It was a depressing thing, being alone. More so when you were sore as hell.

The ceiling was right in front of her, close enough that she could sit up and touch it. Some days, she'd do just that. But now that she was actually coming down from her high, her muscle fatigue from riding on pokemon all day had completely sapped the strength out of her legs.

"Well, I hope everyone else is having fun, at least," she said, taking out her phone and scrolling through her feed. She needed to do something she couldn't stand- research. Leanne had explained to everyone what events they would be doing, but not what those events would entail; Cynthia wanted every advantage she could get.

Cynthia wasn't the only one doing research that night. Reiner and Nikita met up after the preliminaries were over, and to Nikita's surprise (but not at all displeasure) he immediately pulled her into a big hug that nearly knocked her over.

"W-Wow!" Nikita stammered, managing to squirm free. "It's not that I didn't like that, but what brought that on all of a sudden?"

"Well, uh… I don't know," he admitted sheepishly. "I just wanted to hug you."

Nikita couldn't help the dopey grin that spread across her face, no matter how much she wanted to try. She quickly cleared her throat to recompose herself. "Well! Let's not worry about it too much!" She declared. "We should really focus on, um… well…"

Her brain was having trouble focusing. Which wasn't something she was used to.

"D-Do you want to get something to eat? It's a little early for dinner, but we could go celebrate!" She suggested.

Reiner shook his head. "Actually, I was hoping we could go to the library."

Nikita perked up at the mention of "library". "Oh, really? Why? I mean, absolutely, yes, but what do you want at the library?"

If she were in Reiner's shoes, she would have wanted to crawl into bed and not wake up for at least a month.

"I want to do some research on Pokeathlons," Reiner explained. "I got placed in the Jump Course, so I want to see what the events will actually entail. If I'm prepared for what happens, then I won't have a problem!"

"That's the spirit!" Jo clapped Reiner on the shoulder, causing the other boy to jump. He flashed Reiner a handsome grin. "I'll come with you! We can research the events together!"

Nikita glowered at the pink-haired boy. She wasn't sure why Jo was hanging around her boyfriend all the time, but she didn't like it.

Why did there have to be a boy that was prettier than her snooping around Reiner?!

Before she could say anything, though, a chill went through the air.

"Hello, little brother."

Jo turned to stone. He slowly glanced over his shoulder to see Joyce standing there with a placid smile on her face, radiating a malevolent aura.

"I think we need to have a discussion about family loyalty," she said, grabbing him by the hem of his camisole.

"Nooooooooooo!" Jo looked helplessly at Reiner and Nikita, reaching out to them as his sister dragged him away.

Reiner and Nikita glanced at each other after he was gone, and burst out laughing.

"Well, that's something, alright!" Reiner cackled. Nikita shook her head.

Poor guy… but also, stop flirting with my boyfriend! You're getting what you deserve! She could only spare so much mercy for the jerk.

Nikita and Reiner went off to the library to research Pokeathlon events, focusing specifically on the Jump Course. If Reiner could understand the strategy involved, then things would be that much simpler for him later.

At the same time, though, another couple was focusing on a bit more hands-on training.

"Okay, Mankey! Go!" Nick ordered.

"Mankey!" Nick's Mankey raised his paw and slammed it down against the stack of tiles, smashing through them like a knife through rice paper.

"Nicely done!" Callie applauded, a big grin on her face. They were in the training area for the Pokemon Fight Club, getting Nick's pokemon prepared for the upcoming event. "So Nick, what pokemon are you going to be using in the competition? You can only pick three," she reminded him.

Nick nodded. "I'm definitely going to use Mankey," he decided.

"Man!" Mankey's nose flared and he stood up a little taller with pride.

"Makes sense," Callie agreed. "Mankey might not be your strongest pokemon, but in terms of physical strength he's definitely got it going on. Who else are you thinking?"

"Poliwhirl, probably," Nick said, imagining his Poliwhirl smashing tiles the same way his Mankey just did. "And I guess for my third pokemon… I don't know."

He would have to spend a lot of time thinking about it. Hopefully he could come up with an answer tonight, but until that happened he would have to train with all his pokemon. He left his Dratini in a pokeball, though. He knew that was one pokemon who probably wouldn't have the muscle to get ahead, sadly.

Callie nodded thoughtfully. "I think we should move on from tiles," she decided. "Let's focus on that… what was it called? Circle Push or something? Let's do that next! We can train using my pokemon!" She grinned, taking a pokeball off her black belt.

"Come out, Rio!"

"Lucario!" Rio bellowed, emerging from her pokeball and flexing her muscles. Nick gasped in amazement.

"Rio!" He stared at her, wide-eyed, and then turned to Callie. "She… she evolved?"

Callie blinked, surprised he was surprised. "Yeah, didn't I tell you?" She grinned. "Rio evolved while I was fighting in the Orre Region! Our bond was cemented and now she's super-tough and ready to kick some butt!"

"Lucario," Rio nodded.

Nick was amazed. Once upon a time, Callie's Riolu had been even shorter than her. Now the canine pokemon was a good head taller. It was a reminder of how much a pokemon can grow and change once they evolve.

And yet, he could still remember when he used that little Riolu for himself, in the Fall Festival Tournament, because he didn't have enough pokemon of his own.

Callie gasped. "Oh, wait! I almost forgot! I have something else to show you, too!" She grinned, grabbing another pokeball. "Champie!"

"Pangoro!" Champie bellowed as he emerged from his pokeball, beating his chest.

This time, Nick did fall over.

"Is-Is that your Pancham?!" He gasped.

"He's Pangoro now!" Callie beamed, patting her Pangoro on the back with a prideful smile. "He worked really, really hard, and managed to evolve!"

"That's amazing…" Nick was shocked at how much Callie had grown over the course of her trip. In terms of her pokemon's power, anyway. She was still as short as always.

"Yeah, it was a really… intense… battle…" Callie's voice trailed off as she recalled the dark memories of fighting in a tag-team match with her brother. Like a war veteran going through flashbacks she was transported back to that time, when her pain in the ass of a brother refused to listen to a single one of her pleas.

Nick swallowed. The haunted look on her face sent made his heart ache.

"Callie-"

"Forge the Circle Jerkle or whatever it is!" Callie said, snapping out of her haze. She flashed him a wild grin. "I have an even better idea for how we can train! Let's do the Goal Roll!"

She threw out a third pokeball, letting out her Passimian. With those three pokemon, she was excited to train up Nick's team to be Pokeathlon Champions!

Callie and Nick definitely had some of the most hands-on training out of all the finalists, but they weren't the only ones.

That night, Ayame came back from her run drenched in sweat, having worked out hard with her team. She already knew what three pokemon she was planning to take to the competition, and wanted them to get a lot of rest so they'd be in perfect condition for tomorrow. Right now, she was working on herself.

Unfortunately for her, Olivia Himeko was waiting for her in her room when she got back.

Ayame made a sour expression. She was too tired to feign politeness by masking her displeasure, so she let the Empress know just how little she liked being interrupted like this.

"What the fuck are you doing in my room?" She demanded.

Olivia raised her eyebrow. "You realize that the reason you can stay in this room is because it's my building, right? I had a private dorm erected for my friends, and that includes you. I'm renting it out to you, my girl. I can go where I please."

Ayame sighed. Olivia wasn't wrong. But she was too tired to put up with all the bullshit. "Can you just tell me what you want?"

Ayame looked surprised. "I wanted to congratulate you," she replied. "It's really something, making it this far into the tournament."

"Why?" Ayame raised her eyebrow. "Regular Pokeathlons are way more intense than this. Compared to what I'm used to, I'm not even on the starting line yet."

Olivia sighed. That was… certainly a take.

She forced herself to keep smiling. "I know, but I'm still proud of you!" She grinned. "It's part of the reason why I held this competition in the first place! I wanted to cheer you up, make you see that you have a lot of good going on in your life! What do you think, are you enjoying yourself?"

Ayame shrugged. "It was fun, competing with everybody," she admitted. But there were also parts of it that annoyed her. Namely the fact that a certain guy happened to be sniffing around all the time, even after she made it clear that they were over.

"What about Blake?"

Ayame let out the sigh she'd been holding back and shoved past Olivia, flopping down onto her bed and groaning into the pillow.

"I knew you'd bring that up…" She mumbled. She turned over so Olivia could hear her better. "Come on, boss, do we really need to talk about him?"

Olivia shook her head. "It's not about 'needing' to talk to him, Aya. I just thought that you'd 'want' to talk about him, given what happened today."

"I don't want to ever see that jerk again!" Ayame sniffed. Olivia rolled her eyes. She was acting like a petulant child!

Was this how bad I was towards Alcea? Olivia wondered, completely refusing to see her own shortcomings. The fact of the matter was she was much, much worse. I suppose it must be irritating, not being honest with yourself…

Again, for as many hours a day as Olivia spent in front of a mirror, she had a really hard time actually seeing the real her.

"Aya, I'm not going to tell you that you have to get back together with Blake," Olivia said gently, sitting down next to her friend. Because once you get your memories back, you'll probably want to do that of your own accord…

"Then why is it like everybody is trying to force us together, huh?" Ayame scowled, glaring at her friend. "That means you, by the fucking way."

Olivia ignored the comment and shrugged her shoulders. "Aya… maybe you're just seeing things that aren't there, because you're so much more aware of Blake than you are other people."

Ayame frowned. She didn't like the sound of that.

"Well, how do I stop being fucking aware of him, huh?" She demanded. "Because it's like that guy is everywhere! He's practically a fucking stalker!"

Olivia frowned. "I don't want to hear that again!" She snapped, her harsh tone of voice startling Ayame. Her tone turned gentle a few seconds later. "He cares about you, Aya," she murmured. "Do you really hate him that much?"

Ayame felt a stab of pain in her heart at Olivia's accusation. Part of her really, really wanted to hate Blake, but at the same time…

"…No," she admitted, hanging her head sheepishly. "But still! Just because I don't hate him, that doesn't mean I have to LIKE him!"

"So you don't like him then? At all?" Olivia pressed, and Ayame felt herself getting defensive.

Normally, she would have declared absolutely that she didn't like him, but it felt like part of her would be upset if she said something that explicit.

"Well, I mean… I like him, but I just don't like him that way," she said, trying to split the difference. Her feelings for Blake were hard to describe.

And Olivia certainly wasn't making it easier.

"What way is that?"

Ayame glared at her. "You know fucking well what 'way' that is, boss."

"Enough of the boss crap, we're talking as friends, just call me Olivia," Olivia said, waving her hand dismissively. "Oh, and answer my question. What 'way' do you not like him, exactly?"

"I like him just fine as a personal acquaintance," Ayame replied. "He's a nice guy, with a lot of good qualities, and I think he and I could have definitely been good friends. But I have zero romantic interest in him."

"As you've made clear multiple times," Olivia nodded. "Yes, yes, I'm aware that you and Blake do not have a romantic future together." Until I get involved, that is.

"Well, could you tell him, then?" Ayame groaned. "Because he still won't get the hint."

Olivia nodded thoughtfully. "I'll think about it," she agreed.

Ayame blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected Olivia to actually do what she asked.

"R-Really?"

"Sure, of course," Olivia said. "I mean, if you have no intention of dating Blake, he deserves to know that. He's still a first-year, after all, he has lots of time to find someone new."

"Wait, that's not what I-"

"Like that black-haired girl, what was her name?" Olivia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "The tennis player. Andrea, right? I think they would be such a cute couple, don't you?"

"NO!" Ayame exclaimed. "Not her, anyone but her!"

Olivia smirked. "Okay, then who SHOULD he go out with?"

Ayame didn't have an answer she could give other than a pillow into the Empress's perfectly made-up face.

Speaking of Andy, the girl in question was currently training herself. She was in one of the workout facilities on campus, at the tennis court.

"Hiyahoo!" She swung her racket, returning her Ambipom's serve perfectly. As the long-tailed pokemon reached for the ball, she dashed to the net, and started to volley with her pokemon in an impressive display of dexterity, control, and endurance.

Her Ambipom was just as amazing. After exerting himself like he had today, Ace should be resting up at the pokemon center with the rest of Andy's pokemon. The fact that he wasn't was a testament to how effortless pulling off feats like he had today really was.

"…Did you need something?" Andy asked, turning to see who had come onto the court. It was the Phantom.

"Not at all," he said, wearing the same cold smile he always did. "I just wanted to get a good look at your training."

Andy smirked. "I'm doing as fine as ever," she replied. "Why?"

"Well, there's a very important prize on the line," Valon replied. "And I was hoping that, should you win, it would come under my possession."

"Oh, you mean that shiny rock thing?" Andy shrugged. "Yeah, no, I'm cool with that! But you got my money, right?"

Valon nodded. "Of course I've got your money," he assured her. "But again, that's only if you win. I'm not going to pay you for not even making it past the first round. Your opponent IS a Daeva, after all, and Blake Harker… well, my experiences with him have taught me not to make light of his capabilities, I'll say that much."

Andy snorted out a laugh. "Yeah, Blake's really something! It's gonna be a blast, competing against him tomorrow!"

Valon frowned. "Remember, I'm not paying you to 'have a blast'. I'm paying you to win."

Andy smiled. Then she tossed a tennis ball in the air and smacked it at Valon with everything she had. The Phantom didn't flinch as the ball whizzed past his cheek, so close he could almost feel the fuzz burn against his skin.

It struck the door behind him, bouncing off the knob.

"Come on," Andy chortled, twirling her tennis racket. "Do you really think I can lose when it comes down to a matter of skill?"

Well, things are setting up nicely for the upcoming competition! Everyone is training and getting prepared, but some folks have more to prepare than just their pokemon! They need to prepare their hearts, as well. What will a real Pokeathlon look like? Who will emerge the victor? It should be really exciting!