Final Fantasy X: A Novelization
Prologue – Listen to My Story
Listen to my story - this may be our last chance.
I want to set the scene for you. I lived in Zanarkand; the city that never sleeps, they called it. Having lived there my entire life, I can see why. I'd always taken it for granted; the night life, the partying, even the hum-drum every day things seemed exciting when you had all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that would do the work for you.
For a seventeen year old that has better things to do with his time than worry about cooking meals and cleaning his apartment, life really couldn't have gotten much better.
And I was something of a minor celebrity.
I had come a long way in that last year of living there. I joined the blitzball team, the Zanarkand Abes at the age of sixteen and nearly eleven months later, I was their star player.
I had Auron to thank for that. He'd been encouraging me for years to stop messing around in the minor leagues and sign up with one of the major Zanarkand teams – both of which had sent me offers but I had been reluctant.
You see, my old man had been a star blitzball player, something I was never allowed to forget while he was alive. He was always pressuring me to play, but criticizing me when I did. It kinda put me off for a while, but after he disappeared, I did start playing again.
That's how I met Auron; at one of my practices. He approached me, telling me that he wasn't a player himself, but he'd seen enough of the game to know talent when he saw it. I allowed myself to be flattered, but brushed him off. But he was persistent to the point of annoying. How we became friends, I'll never know.
A shrink would probably say it was something to do with the fact that he was near my old man's age and I was looking for a father-figure but yeah, whatever.
I'm going off on a complete tangent now. I just wanted to lay down some foundation so you'd understand the enormity of the upheaval I was about to go through.
Okay, I'd better get on with the story.