'Now, if you look at the files, it's clear to the eye,' murmured the boss. Jigglypuff took the yellow folder from his hands, and flicked through the pages with a blank expression on her face. She nodded.
'The battle earnings are down, you're not winning as you used to,' the boss continued, eager to explain the exact circumstances. 'I mean, you've slipped over ten places down the battle rankings in less then a year…' The boss looked down at the smooth wood of his desk and sighed. 'Where did it all go wrong, Jigglypuff?' Jigglypuff sighed as he sat in the soft desk chair, looking down at his cuddly pink feet with an expression of thought dominating his mind.
'Here's the ranking sheet,' the boss said, and handed another sheet to Jigglypuff as the pokemon placed the yellow folder back onto the desk.
'23rd, Jigglypuff,' the boss said, ambiguity covering his words, a serious structure forming in speech. 'Twenty fucking third out of twenty fucking five!'
'Jigglypuff?' Jigglypuff asked.
'Who are you doing better than?' the boss asked. 'Peach, who's been on crutches since that run in with that good-for-nothing magical nanny, and the Ice Climbers.' A sombre look covered the boss's face as his eyes downcast.
'If you ever lose to the Ice Climbers, we have a real problem,' he said.
'Jigglypuff?' Jigglypuff then asked. The boss sighed.
'That's right, you're losing to Marth,' he explained. 'And he wears a freakin' hair band!'
'Jigglypuff,' Jigglypuff cried. The boss nodded.
'We're in real deep now, you get me?' he explained. 'And if you keep this lousy streak going, I'm going to-' he paused and breathed in-'let you go.' Jigglypuff's wide eyes widened even wider.
'That's right, you heard me,' the boss said. 'I train five of these fighters in the rankings-Falco, Zelda, Luigi, Mewtwo being the other four…and they're all doing well. If you're not winning fights, if you're not earning money, then you just ain't no good for me, kid.'
Jigglypuff sighed.
'Your next game is against that Captain Falcon,' the boss explained, and lit a cigar. 'You win that, move up a rank or two, and we're in business.' He took a deep inhale of the cigar, and exhaled smoke into Jigglypuff's face.
'But if you lose,' he said. 'Then we're in a crisis.'
Jigglypuff nodded, and the boss gestured for him to leave-and so he did, determined to beat Captain Falcon, ready to lull him into a false sense of security and hit him where it hurt.
Two days later, Jigglypuff was sitting on the side of the pavement, jobless, holding a cardboard sign, asking for money for the people who walked past.