Later that day, I was humming as I practically skipped back to the locker room and wrung out my hair one last time. Water sprayed all over the bench, but I didn't care. I'd just done three hours of blitzball practice with the Aurochs without getting hit in the ass by a ball or illegally tackled once, and I was feeling pretty damn good.
I was starting to figure them out. Datto was the ringleader - just my luck. Fast and aggressive, despite the baby face. Letty was smart, liked to consider his options and defaulted to working out his passing arm when he got in a tight spot. Not much of a leader, though; he was willing to follow whatever the loudest mouth in the group was saying. Jassu and Botta were like twins, although Jassu was the better player and the bigger joker and Botta was more easygoing. And Keepa was just laid back. Not a lot of malice in that guy. If I could make him my ally, I wondered if the others might follow.
"Is it time to go to the bar yet?" the goalkeeper himself asked.
Wakka shook the water off of himself like a dog. "Definitely!" We all cheered, me louder than anyone.
"Last one there buys the first round!" Jassu cried as he shot down the steps and through the lobby. He would. Other than Datto, he was the fastest of all of us.
"Which bar?" I yelled to Tidus.
"Just the bar! Follow me!" he yelled back, already running.
"But then I'll have to buy the drinks!"
"Not if you don't end up at the back!" He was darting past the reporters and the fans. It took a little work to keep him in my line of sight, but the thought of what a round of drinks probably cost in a city like this spurred me on. I just pretended it was a blitzball game and he was carrying the ball.
We sprinted out into the street, past the docks and the sphere theater, and into the central square of the city. Tidus pointed at a glowing sign and I veered towards it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Letty and Botta coming up behind me. I slapped my hand on the door and slammed through just ahead of them. A faint curse floated through from the other side.
The room was dominated by a long bar, with several cafe tables off to the sides. The room was dotted with sphere screens, including a big one over the bar, all playing the recap of the day's games. Blitzball banners and blitzball players were everywhere. Tidus, who was swinging himself up on a bar stool next to Wakka, waved and I grabbed the seat next to him. Datto already had his drink down at the far end, and Jassu was on Wakka's other side. I had just sat down when the two guards arrived. About two minutes later, Keepa finally showed up, saw the entire team sitting at the bar watching him, and fingered his thin leather wallet with a heavy sigh.
"What'll you have?" the bartender asked me as soon as I turned around.
Keepa was buying. Why not? "Surprise me," I said, since I had no idea what they drank out here.
He nodded and was back a minute later with a bright blue drink in a tall, thin glass. "Sphere water," he explained. I recoiled and he cracked up. "That's just the name, out-of-towner. It's - "
I didn't particularly care what was in it, just drank it down. It was good; sweet and cold with a nice little kick to it. "What's next?" the bartender asked when I'd drained it to the ice. He was unusually attentive - maybe winners were known to drink well here.
Judging by the weight of my wallet, I had about 150 gil to my name, not counting the 900 the team owed me for the first match. I could probably spring for a few more drinks out of that. On the other hand, I was playing in the semifinals of the Yevon Cup tournament the next day, and I had another practice scheduled for that night. "Something cheap," I said. "And not too strong."
"How about water?" he deadpanned.
Suddenly I pictured my mother draining glasses in a place like this and decided laying off the drinks probably wouldn't be the worst idea I'd ever had. "That'll work."
He wasn't happy about it, but he slapped it on the counter a minute later with the added fanfare of a little paper Aurochs umbrella. I slid a few gil back across and sipped at it as I watched the rest of the team put it away.
I turned to talk to Tidus, but he was talking to Letty over Wakka's head, Wakka having put it down on the bar and decided to lift it only to drink. As funny as I was sure it would have been to get a sphere recording of a half-drunk Wakka and play it over the intercom at the championship match, I didn't feel like trying to hold a conversation with him for fear he'd start ranting about untrustworthy Al Bhed or something equally idiotic. I turned to the other side and watched Datto argue with the bartender for a while about the finer points of Wither Shot, and Botta and Jassu go back and forth about some girl in Besaid who definitely liked one of them - they just couldn't agree on which one. There wasn't much for me to do other than listen in on everyone else's conversations and try to drop in a couple words when I could. No one was talking to me directly.
"Well, at least they're not insulting me," I said half under my breath in Al Bhed.
"Excuse me, but was that Al Bhed you just spoke?" asked a voice behind me in the same language. I turned to see a man, obviously a little older than me, obviously Al Bhed, obviously Berrik, the midfielder of the Al Bhed Psyches.
"Oh! She is the forward for the Aurochs," said a girl with her long blonde hair pulled back into a thick braid that stuck out behind her. That was the youngest member of the team, the guard, Lakkam.
"Linna. We have heard of her before," cut in Nimrook. Nimrook, the hotshot goalie of the league for the last five years. The hero of the Psyches, and thus of Al Bhed everywhere. And he knew my name. "She is the daughter of Amirel. Remember? She and her sister were raised by Rin?"
That was an exaggeration as far as I was concerned, but it seemed to impress the others anyway. I guessed it was a pretty good pedigree in the world of Al Bhed blitz, when I thought about it.
It was a bad idea to get into a friendly conversation with them right there, in public, in Al Bhed, with the Aurochs literally right next to me. I knew it from the first words Berrik had said. But I couldn't've given less of a damn right then. The Psyches were talking to me. I must have played this moment out in my head a thousand times over the years since I first picked up a blitzball. "How do you know me?" I asked. "We've never met."
"Everyone has been talking about your success in today's match. You have our congratulations. It is good to see an Al Bhed making a name for herself," Nimrook answered seriously.
"Oh, well, you guys are the real hometown heroes," I answered. I could talk myself up to Bickson or whoever all day, but around the Psyches, I felt almost shy. Not something I experienced a lot. "I'm just a no-name looking for a big break."
"I think you may find it here." Nimrook smiled, and his eyes were kind behind his clear goggles. "Best of luck in the match tomorrow."
"Who the hell are you talking to?" Datto demanded all of a sudden. I looked around and realized the bartender had gone off to serve the other end of the bar, leaving Datto with no one to pick a fight with. Tidus was missing too - restroom, maybe, or else he'd slipped out to get back to guarding his summoner without my noticing.
This could be bad.
"Just some colleagues," I replied. "They were wishing me luck."
"Those are the Al Bhed Psyches!" Jassu announced.
"Aren't they the ones that tried to kidnap Lady Yuna last year?" Letty asked. Oh, shit. I'd forgotten about that. Correction: this was bad.
"Yeah! Those...those heathens! Get out! You shouldn't even be here!" Datto almost snarled.
I could see Lakkam's fists clench. She might not understand the words, but she understood the tone of voice. Nimrook held a restraining arm in front of her, and Blappa took hold of her hands to try to calm her. The captain's voice was cool. "As you wish." He switched back to Al Bhed long enough to add, "We'll see you in the sphere tomorrow, Linna." Then he motioned for the others to leave.
"Wait a minute!" I cut in. "Get back here. You have the same right to drink here as anyone else. There's no reason for you to leave."
"What are you, a traitor?" Datto demanded. "Bad blood always comes out, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if you let them win tomorrow's match. Or are you working with them on some other plot this year?"
I stopped dead. "We're playing the Psyches tomorrow?"
"That's correct," Nimrook said, speaking again in the Yevonites' language. "The winner will determine who plays in the championship game."
Datto shot me a vicious glare. "Whatcha gonna do, Linna? Tough one, ya? Gonna do the job you were mistakenly hired to do, or are you gonna stick with your heathen buddies over there?"
"Lay off, Datto," Botta cut in. I whirled to stare at him. I hadn't expected anyone else to be on my side.
"Yeah, cool it already, buddy," added Jassu. "We've all had a long day, ya?" Keepa nodded.
"I'll cool it when they're back where they belong - in that snakepit they call Home!" Datto shouted, slamming his fist on the bar. "And when she's with them!"
All of a sudden, I realized I was shaking with rage. I jumped off the bar stool, whipped off my goggles and brought my face right up close to his until he could see the green swirls in my eyes. The alcohol on his breath hit me like a slap.
"Look," I spat. "I don't know what your problem is. I don't know why you're so pissed off that I'm better than you are that you have to take it out on not just me, but an entire race of people who have done absolutely jackshit to you." I could feel my voice rising from a low, steely undertone into a yell. The bar was dead silent. Even the sphere had stopped.
"But let's get something straight right now," I continued. "I'm sick of it. I don't care if you like me. In fact, I can't stand you. But whether you like it or not, at least for the tournament, I'm part of this team, and you'd damn well better come to grips with it. I'm not a traitor, or any other insult you can scrounge up to call me. I'm a forward for the Besaid Aurochs, and I'm gonna score the winning goal in tomorrow's game to prove it to you and everyone else in this whole damn city!" Now I really was yelling at him. I dropped my voice back down again for the stinger. "Get it?"
He nodded. The anger was still written across his face, but with his teammates no longer jumping in to defend him, it was clear he wasn't willing to make a move that would ramp things up. I jammed my goggles back on and stalked toward the door. When he thought I was far enough away from him, Datto taunted, "You'd better score that winning shot, Al Bhed, or that ass a' yours'll be back out on the streets!"
I lunged back toward the bar, but the Psyches were behind me. Berrik grabbed my arm and almost dragged me out. They pushed me like a wave all the way to a quiet corner of the street, and then I exploded. "Why the hell did you stop me?!" I demanded in Al Bhed. "Didn't you hear what he was saying about you?!"
"Of course we heard it. But we ignored it, because it is always like this. We Al Bhed are always treated in this way. And we cannot afford to jeopardize our few chances at success by retaliating." Berrik let go of my arm.
He was right, I knew. They'd done me a favor. But I still wasn't in the mood to go down without a fight. "I'm not your responsibility. Why not let me jeopardize my own damn chances if I want to?"
"Your chances are not only yours," Judda explained. "If you get yourself disqualified from the tournament for assaulting a teammate, everyone who hears of it will not think only of you. They'll say, 'More evidence that the Al Bhed cannot be trusted.' We are all judged for the actions of any one of us."
So they hadn't just dragged me out to protect my budding blitzball career. They'd done it to protect themselves. "So I should just shut up and take it? Not fight back?" I wanted to know.
Lakkam turned to the others with tears hovering on her eyelashes. I felt bad for dismissing her as the Rikku type earlier - she was the only one here getting upset, which seemed to me like the only way to react. "She's right! Why is it like this?!"
"None of us like it. Nevertheless, it is the case. We must deal with the situation as it is. Violence will not change their perceptions; only proving yourself as a true member of the team can do that," Nimrook said gently. "We take our leave now, Miss Linna. We shall meet again tomorrow. Until then, please try not to make matters any worse." He turned, and they all followed like an army in retreat, cutting along the side of the street so they didn't have to part the crowd on their way back towards the hotel.
I watched them go without moving. For me, this was a first. But it had been repeated every day of every season for them, and it had ground them down. When they had faded from view, I kicked the wall a couple times, picked up my bag, and ran all the way back to the stadium in hopes that it would clear my head.
It didn't, of course. As soon as I got into the lobby, I felt a sharp pain in my right hand. I unclenched my fist to find the little Aurochs umbrella. It had cracked in half and one of the sharp ends had jabbed straight through my glove and into my palm, leaving a tiny dot of blood. I crumpled it in my fist again and kept walking towards the sphere.