Things are getting really intense! Everyone is gathering as many flags as they can for the Pennant Capture, in order to gain as many points as possible! But who will manage to win? Will Blake be able to get enough flags to beat Sango and move onto the next round? Will Ayame cheer for him, or will she continue to give him the cold shoulder? Hopefully he'll be able to pull through, with Ayame's help! Well, we'll have to find out! Remember to review!

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: She's quite happy in her own relationship; so she clearly wants them to be happy as well, it's rather sweet.

Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Lila isn't very good at elementary math, sadly.

Oroborus15: Yes it's still a thing more or less.

Hyphenman: The question is, is that what she wants?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1338

"So what do you think?" Olivia asked, turning to Ayame. "Will you cheer for Blake? I know that he'll be able to win if you do!"

"I have no interest in cheering him on," she huffed. "It doesn't matter either way. He's not a fucking part of my life anymore."

Even though she said that, Olivia could see that she was looking tense.

She doesn't want to admit it, but she is worried, Olivia thought, frowning. She does care about him, and she does want to compete with him. If only she wasn't so goddamn stubborn! Aargh, Aya, you're too difficult!

"That is really what you want, is it?"

Olivia straightened up and whipped her head around to see Alcea. She was staring straight ahead, not looking at either of them. But Olivia knew her words were intended for Ayame.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Ayame asked, frowning. She looked curiously at the redhead, and Olivia could see some eagerness in her eyes.

Is she looking for an excuse?

"You may not love Blake any longer, but that doesn't matter," Alcea said calmly. "If he can't make it to the next round, then he won't be able to compete against you."

"S-So what?" Ayame asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He beat you in a race once before," Alcea stated. "You may not remember it, but you must know that it happened, oui?"

Ayame flinched. Her club had told her as much.

"Wouldn't you like a chance to defeat him, and prove that it was a fluke that he beat you?" Alcea asked her.

"N-No, I don't fucking care about that," Ayame scowled. But the look on her face said that she really did care. "I'm going to the final. If Blake doesn't, that means that I'm better. It's as simple as that," she replied.

Alcea raised her eyebrow but didn't look Ayame's way.

"If you can't defeat him directly… will you really be able to gloat?" She asked.

Ayame paused.

"I-I guess not," she said, a small smile tugging up her lips. "Yeah, if I want to beat Blake directly… I guess I have to fucking cheer for him, right?" Olivia smiled as well. Ayame had finally found the excuse she needed.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled.

"BLAKE!" She shouted. "Are you going to fucking lose here!? I don't fucking think so! So you fucking win, you got that?!"

Blake paused as he picked up a flag. That voice… it couldn't be.

He looked over his shoulder at the stands. He couldn't see Ayame, because of course he couldn't. But that voice.

Blake knew that gruff, deep baritone. Sounding oddly masculine, even though the feminine lilt made it clear the gender of the person it belonged to.

Ayame was cheering for him.

A smile spread across his lips and he stood up straight.

"Thank you, Tara!" He shouted to his Snivy, reinvigorated as he crossed the barrier. "Let's get going, Maria! We can do this!"

"Mareanie!" Maria chirped. She dashed forward alongside him, scuttling over the sand. Everyone was surprised at how fast she was moving.

"Ah, not bad, Blake!" Marion called as she returned to her own space, switching out Mana for her Basculegion. "Good thinking with your Mareanie! They're deep sea pokemon, but they often come up onto the beach! They're used to maneuvering across the sand!"

"The Blue Team seems to have gained their second wind!" Lila noted. "The captain is moving at twice the speed of before! And his pokemon seem to be running alongside him just as well-paced! That's quite something, don't you agree, Darla?"

"Yeah, you got that right," Darla nodded. "Keep going you two!"

Marion smiled as she dashed across the sand. Bass floated beside her, shooting forward like a torpedo to grab some flags.

It's odd. Blake doesn't have harmonia, and yet his pokemon still respond to his emotional state just like he did. That thought was a curious one for Marion. I suppose it's because his personality just gets people and pokemon swept up into his passion. Kinda like Sango in that regard, I guess!

Sango was more outgoing and Blake was more reserved, but to Marion they seemed like very similar people. Both incredibly passionate and headstrong.

"Blake!" Sango shouted, swapping out Silver for Mukuro next. The Decidueye swept across the sand, trying to gather more flags. But Maria was very thorough. She couldn't help but smile when she thought that.

He's really doing his best. I'd like to think that's enough… but it's not. I'm not going to lose to him! Not right now! Not until he proves himself!

"Rabsca!" Pewpa rolled his ball past, gathering up flags at every opportunity along with Andy. She grinned, flashing Blake a thumbs up as she passed, and swapped out for Ace, her Ambipom, a pokemon that would really be able to take things to the next level.

"Let's go, Ace!" Andy cheered. "Hiyahoo!" She ran through the sand with her pokemon. Ace treated the beach like a jungle gym, whipping one of his tails out and grabbing onto an umbrella to swing forward, snagging up a flag with his other.

"All the teams are gathering up flag after flag!" Lila noted. "Take a look at those scores, Darla!" She gestured to the scoreboard, illustrating how many flags each team had gotten.

Andy – 37 flags

Blake – 43 flags

Marion – 38 flags

Sango – 40 flags

"If you look, the Blue Team is in the lead by three flags!" Darla pointed out. "Those are some pretty good numbers!"

"The question is, will they be enough to win the whole course," Leanne questioned. And she knew as well as anyone else who could do math that the answer was no.

"Their scores are really tight," Nikita said, biting her lip. "But Blake still needs more flags to win. In this situation, he's in a really rough spot."

"Come on!" Blake shouted to Tara. He'd already worn out Maria, and then Ruru as well; Tara was up again, and she'd probably be his last switch, given the fact that time was almost up in the round. He needed to get some flags, fast, a few cheap and easy ones to pad out his score above Sango's and win the event by a landslide.

Blake ran out onto the course with Tara at his side, and spotted a flag that popped up right in front of the waiting areas.

His eyes met Sango's. They'd both come out of their waiting areas at the same time. Sango had brought Silver back out, and both trainer and pokemon saw the same flag that Blake and Tara did. Everyone ran for it at once.

Except Silver, who floated, of course, but that's beside the point.

"You're not getting this one!" Sango shouted. She leapt forward, reaching for the flag.

"I am!" Blake snapped, leaping forward himself. They both reached for the flag, in a mirrored parallel of what Ayame and Ange had done in the previous Pennant Capture.

These idiots were a lot more clumsy and reckless than those two, though. Which is why instead of a diving tackle to see who could grab the flag first, they both smacked headfirst into one another and sprawled out.

"OWWWWW!" Blake and Sango rolled in the sand, holding their mouths.

"I think you broke my jaw!" Sango exclaimed, hopping up and glaring furiously at Blake. "What was with that?!"

"You're one to talk!" Blake shouted back. His lip was bleeding. "You nearly knocked my front teeth in, damn it!"

"Hey, they didn't just…" Cynthia's jaw dropped. She looked at the others for clarification. "Did they?"

Kitty stared with her mouth open and her face bright red. She wasn't the only one. Elaina looked completely flustered, while Ayame just seethed.

"Time-out!" Blake shouted. "Medical treatment!"

"R-Right," Leanne nodded, a little startled by what happened. "We'll be taking a short time-out at the request of the Blue Team!"

The clock stopped. But Lila thought that dead air wouldn't be very interesting.

"Let's check the instant replay!" She chirped, grabbing the remote and rewinding it while Blake and Sango both got some first-aid from their head-on collision.

The camera depicted Blake and Sango slowly crash into one another. Specifically, their mouths slamming into each other.

Sango turned bright red. "W-We… we…"

The audience could see smoke coming up from her head as she stared at herself on the screen. She was self-destructing like a Pineco that fell off a tree.

That was my first kiss!? THAT?! My first kiss… with Blake… it was… that was-! She didn't know how to process it.

"I hesitate to call it romantic," Darla said, resisting the urge to smirk from ear to ear. "But in my book, that's definitely a kiss."

Ayame clenched the arms of her chair without even realizing it.

"Aya, calm down," Olivia urged her. "It's not a big deal. It was just an accident. And look at that! It wasn't even a real kiss anyway! Don't lose your temper."

"Who's upset?!" Ayame snapped. "I'm not fucking upset!"

She practically broke the arm off her seat.

Blake was playing it pretty close to the vest. Was he embarrassed? Hell yeah, he was embarrassed. He'd just kissed Sango in front of everyone, more or less. But he couldn't let that distract him. He had an event to win now.

I'll add that to the list of things to apologize to Sango for later, Blake thought, shaking his head and rubbing at the welt growing on his iced lip.

When the break was over, after Blake and Sango were properly treated for their injuries (thankfully, they wouldn't need any dental work; their teeth weren't even knocked out of place from the collision) everyone returned to the field.

That didn't mean they were all ready to begin the event again.

Sango's brain had stopped working.

So when the timer started up again, and everyone raced out to go grab more flags in the short few seconds that were left in the event, Sango just stood there with a blank look on her face, her brain still overheating.

"What's she doing?!" Callie exclaimed. "Why's she just standing there?!"

"Personal issues," Cynthia sighed, rubbing her forehead. "She's just run out of motivation after that little incident."

Blake didn't have time to question what Sango was doing. He didn't even notice what she was doing, in fact. He was focused on getting as many flags as he could before time ran up.

A buzzer rang overhead just as he grabbed the last flag. He flopped over in the sand, and Tara quickly ran over to him.

"Snivy?" Tara shook his arm. The rest of Blake's pokemon ran over to him.

"Hey girl," Blake said, patting her on the head. He looked up at the scoreboard to see what the results were.

Andy – 44 flags

Blake – 47 flags

Marion – 46 flags

Sango – 40 flags

"Look at those scores! They all tried their best, didn't they?" Lila asked.

"I definitely agree, Lila," Darla nodded. "Although Sango kind of self-destructed at the end there, I'd say."

"She did her best," Leanne said, nodding. "But some things can just get people flustered. And she still got a pretty good score!"

"That's a really good point," Lila agreed. "Let's take a look at the scores! How many points did everyone get?"

"Good question, Lila! Let's figure out how many Athlete Points everyone earned!" Darla grinned, turning to Leanne.

"Let's start with the Red Team," Leanne declared. Andy perked up with excitement. She helped Blake onto his feet. He looked completely worn out, and was trying to catch his breath.

"Ooh, how many points did I get?" Andy asked, nearly dropping Blake as her attention shifted to something more interesting.

"As you remember, the number of Athlete Points a team gets will be determined by the number of flags captured times three," Leanne reminded everyone. "Andy and the Red Team got 44 flags, and that means they get 132 Athlete Points!"

The audience applauded and Andy grinned.

"Hiyahoo!" She cheered. But even as happy as she was, she knew that wasn't nearly enough points for her to win.

"Congratulations, Andy," Blake said. He finally got the feeling back in his legs and separated from her, standing up straight.

"Ehehe, I did my best," she smiled back. "But hey, let's see how many points you got, my dude!" She socked him in the shoulder.

Blake promptly fell over.

"Ah! Dude, sorry! Sorry!" Andy wailed, helping him back up. As she did so, Leanne moved onto Blake's score next.

"Up next, the Blue Team," Leanne declared. "Blake gathered 47 flags, which means his score is a total of 141 Athlete Points! A pretty decent score, and the highest one for this event."

"Alright!" Cynthia cheered. "Way to go, Blake!"

"That's enough, right?" Reiner asked, turning to his girlfriend. "Enough points for Blake to beat Sango and move onto the finals, right?"

"Y-Yeah, it should be," Nikita said, swallowing. She hoped that it was anyway. Her math had checked things out, but she was so emotionally flustered she didn't know if she could trust herself. I really hope I didn't miscalculate.

"Isn't that great, Aya?" Olivia asked, turning to her friend. "Blake won! He's going to be going up against you in the finals, aren't you glad?"

"Ecstatic," Ayame replied. But in spite of her sarcasm, she still smiled.

"Okay, next up is the Green Team," Leanne said, moving onto Marion's score. "Marion collected 46 flags, one short of the Blue Team, and that means she gets 138 Athlete Points! Again, another great score!"

"Yep! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Marion cheered. Like Andy, she didn't mind that her score wasn't high enough to win. She had enough fun all on her own; unlike Blake and Sango, nothing had driven her to do any differently than she had today.

"And finally, the last person we're going to look at is the Yellow Team," Darla said, turning to Leanne. "This one should be simple, right?"

"That's right," Leanne nodded. "Sango got 40 flags, so her total number of Athlete Points for this round is 120. A very simple score."

Sango finally snapped out of her fugue when she heard her name announced. She looked around, confused by what was happening. "Wait, what?" She asked. "Holy… what the heck?! The event is already over?"

"That's right," Marion laughed, coming over and clapping her on the shoulder. "You were out of it for a while, huh? After you and Blake crashed into each other, I mean."

Sango turned red. She remembered what had happened in clear detail, and her brain started to overheat again.

"I-I-I…" She stammered, shaking her head.

"It's fine, girl, breathe," Marion said, patting Sango on the back. "You did really good! But in the end, I think it's a little too late."

Sango glanced at the scores. She frowned. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "I guess that's just how it goes."

"Yup," Marion nodded.

"Okay, but who won?" Lila asked excitedly. "How many points did everyone get, huh?!" She was squirming in her seat.

"Well, let's take a look," Leanne said, gesturing to the screen. The scores flashed up onto it, showing how many Athlete Points everyone earned.

Red Team – Andy – 361 Points

Blue Team – Blake – 411 Points

Green Team – Marion – 371 Points

Yellow Team – Sango – 406 Points

"Well, would you look at that?" Darla asked, surprised. "It was just by a few points, but the Blue Team managed to pull ahead of the Yellow Team! That means Blake will be the one to move on to the final round of the Pokeathlon Competition!"

"That's awesome!" Lila cheered. "A real come-from-behind victory! He did the best he could, and managed to win!"

"I wonder if he has someone to thank for his victory," Leanne mused. A small smile crossed her lips. "Besides his pokemon, I mean."

Blake turned red as Ayame's face flashed through his mind. Up in the stands, Ayame turned a little red too as Olivia shot her a knowing smile.

"He won!" Cynthia leapt from her chair and punched the air with joy. "Aww, fuck yeah! This is awesome! Blake actually won!"

"I guess that means you'll be going up against him in the finals, then," Nick noted. "You and Ayame both will."

"And I'm going to win," Ayame said coldly. "It's exactly what I want."

"We'll see," Olivia chuckled. She sank back into her seat, finally able to breathe easily. Blake would be facing off against Ayame, just as she planned.

She couldn't wait to see how this would go.

Come on, Aya. You know how you feel, even if you don't want to admit it. Blake will reach you. I know he will.

So Blake managed to win! It was by the skin of his teeth, but he managed to get a higher score than Sango, and move onto the next round! The finals are coming next! But for now, let's see how things are going to go for the rest of them! Will Sango and Blake manage to make amends? What will everyone's response be to their "almost but not quite" kiss? We'll have to find out!