Blake's managed to score a point with his pokemon's daring efforts! That's a nice start, but will his lead hold? The Goal Roll is only just getting started, and things are going to get more intense from here! With Sango targeting him, he might have some difficulty. But why's she being such a jerk, anyway? They're friends, after all, they should be able to work together, at least for this event!

The Elimination Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 4 has started! Make sure to get those votes in, we've only got a few so far! You can vote for up to 5 girls, so make sure your favorites have a chance to shine!

Nominated: Alcea, Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Callie, Chloe, Cynthia, Dakota, Donoma, Elaina, Gabrielle, Joyce, Kate, Maddi, Misato, Nikita, Rui, Sango, Sylvia, Vic

KedharS: We'll have to see. He's certainly going to try his best.

Hyphenman: That's the thing about Pokeathlons, they make use of pokemon's advantages in ways you wouldn't normally, even in a pokemon battle.

Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Very good analysis. The reasoning is simply that they didn't have those pokemon on them at the time, and they couldn't just take a break to go retrieve them due to the heat of the moment, unlike with Lana.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1334

"Aw, yeah!" Cynthia cheered, punching the air. "Now that's what I'm talking about! Way to go, Blake! That's exactly what we want to see!"

"That was a great strategy!" Nikita said, her eyes wide with glee. "Using Galvantula's thread like that was really fast thinking!"

"Why are you guys giving the credit to Blake?" Kitty asked, frowning. "Ruru was the one who thought that up all on her own."

"Yeah, that's a good point," Nick nodded in agreement. "It looks like Blake's Galvantula is as tricky as he is!"

"Yeah but this game isn't over yet," Ayame pointed out. "There's still a lot of time left on the clock… and Blake's move there really caused him to overextend his defenses."

The meaning behind those words became clear instantly.

"Mukuro, go!" Sango shouted.

"Decidueye!" Mukuro spread his wings and soared towards the ball in the center of the court. It was wide open for him to get, since Tara was the only pokemon close by, and she was still stunned from getting hit by Bass.

"Oricorio!" Doria cheered Mukuro on with her pom-poms, encouraging the Decidueye to fly even faster. He held out his talons and kicked the ball, heading straight for the Blue Team's goal in order to score a point while two of Blake's pokemon were away.

"Look at that!" Lila gasped.

"The Blue Team scored a point, but it looks like they might be scored upon at the same time," Darla said, frowning.

"Decidueye!" Mukuro flung the ball at Blake and the goal.

"Mareanie!" Maria leapt into the air, slapping at the ball with her tentacles. She managed to stop it from going in, but the resulting blow to her head stunned her momentarily.

Sango smirked. "Looks like you need a pokemon with a bit better stamina, Blake!" She shouted. "Keep going, Mukuro!"

With the Blue Team's only defender down for the count, Blake's remaining pokemon couldn't get back to the goal fast enough to stop him. Blake jumped up to try and grab the ball out of the air, but Mukuro's speed and accuracy were too high. Taking advantage of his wings, he sent the ball sailing over Blake's head and into the goal.

"Oof, that's rough," Lila winced.

"You can say that again, Lila," Darla nodded in agreement. "The Blue Team's Galvantula worked so hard to get that point, and the Yellow Team took it away just like that."

"That's one of the risks of the Goal Roll," Leanne said. "If you extend yourself too far to try and score a point, you end up in a situation where there aren't enough pokemon by your goal to defend. In this case, the Yellow Team's attacker was just that much more capable than the Blue Team's defender, that's all there is to it."

"Sango…" Blake scowled, glaring at Sango. But as frustrated as he was, he couldn't get too angry with her. After all, she was just playing the game, even if she was targeting him to do it. And it's not like I can really blame her for targeting me, either, he silently admitted.

After all, he'd really messed up, trying to kiss her like that. Knowing how she felt, but still trying to drive her off regardless? It made him a scumbag of the highest order. He wouldn't be surprised if Sango decided never to speak to him again.

Meanwhile, Sango was patting herself on the back for scoring a point off Blake like that. But she wasn't getting cocky, either.

I got a point… and I got ahead. But that's not enough. I'm not satisfied yet! She narrowed her eyes at Blake. And you're not satisfied either, are you, Blake? No, there's no way you'd be. So stop dicking around and take things seriously already! I trained this hard for a reason, you know, so come at me like you mean it!

Several days ago…

"Sango, can I ask you something?" Elaina was watching from the sidelines as Sango trained with her pokemon. Only Hope wasn't involved in the training, since Sango planned to use her trusty Castform in their place.

"Sure, what is it?" Sango asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead and turning to the brown-haired girl curiously. Elaina seldom spoke, even now that they were on friendly terms. She mostly contented herself with watching Sango train.

"Why are you training so hard for this?" Elaina asked curiously. She'd agreed to let Sango use her pokemon because she thought it would be a good way for them to enjoy themselves, since battles were off the table. But that didn't explain what Sango got out of this.

Sango sighed, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a swig. She'd been afraid that Elaina would ask something like that.

"It's complicated," she replied, as if an answer like that meant anything.

Elaina stared numbly at her, waiting for more details. Unfortunately, Sango wasn't exactly forthcoming with them.

"…If you want to use my pokemon, I think I deserve at least an explanation," Elaina said, crossing her arms and frowning. "When you asked, you said something about Blake, but you didn't go into the specifics. So can you be a little more clear, please?"

Sango scowled, but she knew that Elaina had her between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't exactly rebuff the girl.

She sighed again.

"Blake, he… he's doing something really stupid."

Elaina didn't respond, because what Sango had told her wasn't exactly news. Most of the time, if Blake was doing something, it was something stupid. Like trying to befriend a girl who flung hurricanes at him and his pokemon, the despised witch that no one at the school would dare approach.

It was the fact that he did stupid, crazy, reckless stuff like that in spite of the danger that Elaina had started to fall for him. Because he always did the right thing.

She stared pointedly at Sango until Sango continued.

"He's… he's getting into a pokemon battle with his brother," she finally said.

"Kanone Harker?" Elaina raised her eyebrow, surprised. "Yes, I… I heard something about that… but wasn't that just a rumor?"

Sango shook her head. "No. He's really going through with it. In a couple days, too. He could be training for the Pokeathlon like me, but instead he's training his pokemon to take on his older brother. It's just a huge mess."

"Well… I sort of understand it, to be honest," Elaina admitted. "After all, Kanone Harker is an exceptional trainer. The Pokeathlon certainly looks fun, but at the end of the day, it's merely a casual school event. Fighting against a trainer like Kanone, even if he is your brother, could be a once in a lifetime opportunity."

"It's not just about the Pokeathlon!" Sango exploded. Elaina took a step back, startled, and her harmonia triggered out of reflex, smacking Sango in the face with a blast of wind.

"A-Ah… sorry…" Elaina turned pale, feeling sick to her stomach at having once again used her powers on someone she considered a friend. But Sango didn't seem to mind.

"It's fine," she muttered, cracking a smile. "My hair's always a mess, don't worry."

Elaina frowned, not exactly thrilled at the joke the other girl made. "Sango, really, I-"

"I said it's fine," Sango snapped. She was so far past being upset at Elaina, she still hadn't worked off her anger towards Blake yet! "Look, Elaina, you don't get it. This Pokeathlon Competition… it's not just some casual event."

Elaina raised her eyebrow and took a cautious step towards Sango. "It's not?" She asked. "Then what is it?"

"W-Well, I mean, it IS casual," Sango clarified. "But to some of us… it really means a lot."

Elaina stared blankly at her, not sure what to make of that.

Sango sighed. "Listen, what I'm going to tell you, it's a pretty big secret." Even though she said that, she knew that the secret wasn't THAT big, and Elaina would probably learn the truth about things sooner or later anyway.

"What is it?" Elaina asked.

"You know Ayame, right?" Sango asked. "Ayame Toujou?"

Elaina tried very hard to keep from making a sour face. Of course she knew Ayame. The girlfriend. The reason why Blake wouldn't date her.

"What about her?" She asked, forcing the anger out of her voice. She didn't want to talk about Ayame right now.

"She… had an accident. During the junior and senior trip to the Orre Region," Sango mumbled, staring at the ground. Just thinking about what had happened brought tears to her eyes.

Elaina's expression softened. "An accident?" She asked quietly. "What do you mean? Is she alright? She isn't hurt, is she?" Suddenly, Elaina realized that she didn't really pay attention to Ayame and Blake after coming back. But she remembered…

"Wait!" She gasped. "Is that the reason things went so badly on the pier?" She definitely remembered THAT happening.

"Uh… yeah," Sango said, blushing. She'd actually forgotten about that herself. "And don't worry, Ayame's okay… more or less. But she forgot about Blake. Completely."

Elaina gasped. "What?!"

"Yeah, she forgot about him," Sango confirmed with a nod. "She lost all of her memories about him due to some misfortune, and she doesn't remember that they were dating." Her eyes started to water. "Do you have any idea how awful that is?"

"…Yeah…" Elaina wondered what things would be like for her if Blake forgot about her. He had tried so hard to save her, he had rescued her from her pain… and if he lost all his memories of her? If they just became strangers?

Her heart would break.

"I have to go talk to him!" Elaina exclaimed, turning to leave the clearing. She had no idea that Blake was going through something like this!

"Wait, wait, hold on there, Sally," Sango said, grabbing Elaina by the collar and yanking her back. "It's not that easy."

Elaina turned and looked back at her, confused. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Blake's fine. Better than fine." Her expression soured. "Somehow, it seems like he doesn't even care about Ayame at this point."

Elaina's mouth fell open.

"…Yeah, that was my reaction too. Let me explain things a little clearer," Sango sighed. "So basically, according to Olivia- I don't know if you know her, but she's the Empress? Blonde hair? Pretty? Kind of bitchy, but in a way where you can't be sure if she really doesn't like you or if it's just her natural state of being?"

Elaina winced. She was familiar.

"Yeah, that's the look. Well anyway, according to the Empress, Ayame's memories have been returning, right?" Sango continued her explanation. "But they're only temporary. And it's when she's around Blake; it's like the memories jog in her head or something, I don't know. It's all a bunch of weird mind stuff and I'm not a doctor."

"Yeah, that, uh, doesn't sound right," Elaina said, shaking her head. But then, given her harmonia, she couldn't quite deny what Sango was saying outright, either.

"Basically, the reason why the Empress decided to run this Pokeathlon Competition is because she wanted to get Blake and Ayame competing against each other, yeah?" Sango said, rolling her eyes. "Because apparently if they compete against each other, then maybe her memory comes back, and if that happens, well, maybe they get to live happily ever after."

Sango swallowed her "yeah, right".

"That's so sweet!" Elaina gushed, ignoring the tinge of pain in her heart. A dark part of her felt like it wouldn't be impossible to win Blake over herself, if Ayame was out of the picture. But she forced those dark thoughts back down where they came from; whenever she'd failed to control her emotions, bad things tended to happen.

"Yeah, it is sweet," Sango said, less inclined to hold back her bitterness than Elaina was. Her feelings towards Blake were a lot more complicated in recent days. "The problem is that he doesn't want to compete in the Pokeathlon."

Elaina gasped. "Wait, what?! But what about the whole 'get back Ayame's memory' thing? Are you saying he doesn't care?"

Sango didn't want to go that far. Obvious Blake cared about Ayame. But he sure wasn't acting like it right now.

So she shrugged.

"That jerk!" Elaina bit her lip, and Sango felt a breeze run through the forest.

"Um, Elaina… calm down…" Sango urged her. "This is a little bit…"

The wind picked up.

"How dare that jerk? If he loves her, then he should fight for her!" She roared. "Would he just abandon her like that?!"

Elaina's pokemon tensed up, feeling their connection to her through their harmonia bond. That only fueled the windstorm even more.

"No! He's not abandoning her!" Sango desperately shouted over the gale. "It's a lot more complicated than that!"

How did I become the person defending Blake's honor? Sango thought incredulously, confused as to how things had gotten this far.

However it happened, that managed to calm Elaina down. She turned to Sango and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, really?"

Sango nodded. "Yes. Really." It seemed like the safest thing she could say. She cared about Elaina, but her friend could scare her sometimes.

"Basically, well, Blake wants to do both," she sighed. "He wants to spend his time training to fight Kanone, but he also wants to repair his relationship with Ayame, too. He wants it all, the jerky jerkface!" She pouted.

"Jerkface," Elaina scowled, nodding in agreement. "…So what does this have to do with me?"

"I want to use your pokemon to kick his ass," Sango said simply. "I want to beat him in order to show him that he's wrong."

"…Is that really okay?" Elaina asked. Her anger had passed by this point, and now she had reached the stage of being concerned again. "After all… if you beat Blake… won't that mean he won't be able to repair his relationship with Ayame?"

As much as Elaina didn't want Blake and Ayame to be together, she didn't want to hurt him, either. And judging by the trouble expression on Sango's face, she didn't want to hurt him, either.

Sango decided not to mention the fact that Blake tried to kiss her. That might set Elaina off completely. Besides, it wouldn't help her win Elaina over.

"I know it seems that way," Sango admitted. "And you're right. Maybe… maybe this is a reckless decision that could backfire."

"Then why?" Elaina didn't know why Sango was risking this, if she cared so much about Blake. "Wouldn't it be better to-"

"Because Blake doesn't know how good he has it, that's why!" Sango snapped. She'd finally had enough. "He doesn't!"

Elaina took a step back, startled by Sango's sudden outburst.

Sango took a deep breath and let it go.

"Blake… he's never been happier than he has been with Ayame," Sango said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "And yet he's putting it all at risk, just to defeat his brother. And I'm not going to be able to stop him from doing it."

She slumped against a tree and sank into the grass, hugging her knees to her chest. Silver floated over to her, to comfort her.

"Castform…"

Sango reached out and patted Silver on the cheek, smiling.

"Thanks," she murmured. She turned and looked back up at Elaina.

"I don't want to beat Blake," she admitted. "Not really. I want to fight him. I want to test him, to fight him with everything I have. If I can push him to his limit, then he'll be able to figure out what he really wants."

She clenched her fist.

"And he'll realize just how much he cares about Ayame and wants to make things right with her." Sango could picture Blake fighting with every scrap of his willpower in order to overcome her challenge and get back together with Ayame. "If he can't beat me… well, then I guess he'll realize that he could have tried harder. Either way, he'll know that he has to devote himself to her completely. That's what I'm after with all of this."

That was her role in this right now. Blake wanted to drive her away? Fine. Then she'd be an obstacle for him.

That was the way she'd support the boy she loved.

"Sango…" Elaina reached down to help her friend to her feet. "You're right. That's an admirable goal. Let's work together and beat some sense into him!"

Sango felt a strong gust of wind lift up her skirt. She forced it down, flustered.

"E-Elaina!"

"Sorry!" The brunette wailed. "I can't help it!"

And that brought them to where they were today.

Come on, Blake! Sango goaded him with her glare. You've got to better than that!

"Is that all you got?!" She shouted at him from across the field.

"Sango!" Blake shouted back, narrowing his eyes. Ruru and Tara made it back to his side of the field, and they all prepared for the ball to come back out.

This time, two balls rose up from the center of the court. The game just got a lot more complicated.

Sango smiled. That was just what she needed to push Blake to his limits.

In the stands, Elaina watched on. "Come on, Sango," she whispered. "You can do it. Kick that jerkface's ass!"

Well now, the bond between Sango and Elaina has only increased in strength! And they've united together under a mutual cause- giving the win to Ayame! Damn. Maybe they should have teamed up to try and seduce Blake instead, that would have been amusing. Well, will Blake be able to rise to Sango's challenge? Or will she prove correct that he wasn't devoting enough of his time to Ayame to truly reach her?