"But Ness, I saw him. He was all by himself in the kitchen, and – and –"
Lucas's voice died in his throat, but he did not have to finish: the twenty-minute journey to the isolated courtyards had given him ample time to blurt out his recount of the incident two days prior. Toon Link had listened with the appropriate gestures: gasps at Lucas's descriptions of the corpses piled before him, an obligatory "What!" at the reveal of Yoshi's solitary presence. Ness, however, had reacted to the story with nothing more than silence, except for the occasional grunts when he had to expend some extra effort in lifting his foot from the snow.
Now the three boys stood before the bricked alcove through which Ness had watched his friend disappear just over twenty-four hours ago. Ness squeezed his tongue on the back of his front teeth as he studied a hastily-drawn diagram of the brick wall. He looked up, gazed at the real thing, and then switched back to the diagram. The diagram was drawn in thick black ink from a permanent marker, the end of which he used to tap the illustrated bricks. He was trying as hard as he could to remember the exact brick that had opened up the hidden entrance. He remembered that it was in the general right of the wall, but beyond that he wasn't sure. The logical thing to do would be to tap every single brick until the wall crumbled away, but Ness was cautious: he was afraid that repeated failed attempts would trigger some security measure that could deactivate the entrance, or worse, warn the Nintendirectors of his attempted trespassing.
"Ness," Toon Link was speaking up now, "are – are you sure this is a good idea? I mean – Lucas does bring up a good point, don't you think? I'm not saying Yoshi's the Glitch!" he quickly interjected, as though fearful that the mere implication of such blasphemy was enough for Ness to back throw him to the other side of the universe. "But you know, maybe…" Toon Link shrugged, a pathetic one. "Maybe it's just not the best idea?"
Ness wasn't listening. He had just noticed an odd carving on the lower right section of the wall. He thought it looked like a trash can, with a cylindrical body and a pan-shaped lid. He pointed a finger at the brick where the tip of the lid was carved into, and then shut his eyes. He tried to remember the exact placement of Link's hand relative to this indent. He knew it had to be close, could see it in his mind's eye. The only question was, where…?
A grueling twenty seconds later Ness opened his eyes. He counted two up, one left from where he started. Then he pushed.
The brick did not budge.
He moved up a brick. He pushed again.
Again, nothing.
"I mean, maybe – maybe we should come back later, discuss this through –"
"If you're afraid," Ness said loudly, without turning back, "you can just leave. I'll see him by myself."
There was no reply behind him.
"We made a vow as the Dung Beatles to never abandon each other," Ness continued as he shifted his hand to the left by one more brick. "Through thick and thin, in good times and bad times – we promised there would always be six other shoulders to rest your head on. If you can't commit to that, then go. Go, and don't show your backstabbing selves to me ever again."
And with those handsome words out of his mouth, Ness pushed. There was a low bellow, as though the wall was releasing a long slow fart. Then the bricks crumbled away and a great blackhole opened up before them.
With the exception of the wardrobe door, kept slanted on the wall by the wardrobe, and the various gashes on her wall, which she covered with a wide tapestry featuring the insignia of her mask, Lucina's room was more or less back in its ordered state. This included the Falchion, in its rightful place on the sword stand by her door. She cast frequent stares in its direction, out of relief at its return, and disgust that a holy weapon reserved for the descendants of Naga could ever serve function to a slimy, wretched thief who possessed neither required blood nor noble intent.
She still remembered, very vividly, the back of Yoshi's hand, marred a mutant turquoise for some inexplicable reason, holding tightly the grip of the Falchion, in direct violation of its divine purpose and requisite. Before him, the hint of a perverse meal laid out like a banquet – the severed head of Olimar gazing blankly to the ceiling, the broiled legs of Greninja inviting teeth to sink into flesh. There might have been more, but the crowding of bodies around the single entrance had made it difficult to see beyond, and once she caught sight of the Falchion in Yoshi's hand nothing else could stave her mind off it other than its immediate return.
Return it did, but only when four hours had passed since the early morning catastrophe and the announcement ordering complete isolation. Her overwhelming impatience and frustration at it all was finally broken by a sudden knock on her door, followed quickly by Mario's voice: "Lucina, this is Mario and Link. We're coming in to give you your sword. Don't be surprised."
"Lucina," he had asked after her vocal celebration of being reunited with her sword had passed, "Lucas tells me he had called up you and Lucario in order to get some breakfast before the incident in the kitchen. Is this true?"
An easy question. Lucina simply nodded as she sat down on her bed and held the Falchion tenderly to her eyes, checking immediately for any blemish or defect that had surfaced from its misuse.
"When was the last time you polished your sword?" Link asked next. "Roughly how many days before the theft did you do it?"
Though Lucina was busy inspecting every feature of the Falchion, from its gilded pommel to the tip of its blade, she had no trouble answering, for it was another easy question whose answer lied in a clockwork routine and thus required no break in concentration to muster.
"I polish my sword every night. Hilt to blade, meticulously until it's free from all grime. So… The night previous, I suppose."
She looked up, then, and shot each an inquisitive stare. "Why?"
The only response she got was the silent exchange of glances between the two. Then they turned around swiftly, thanked Lucina for her time, and readied their departure.
"And remember, Lucina," said Link as Mario pulled the door open and Lucina simply gazed aback at the sudden end of the interview, "no talking to anyone about this – or anything else, for the matter. Not until further notice, at least."
"But wait!" she cried, resting the Falchion by her side and jetting up from the bed, "what's going to happen to us? How long are you going to keep us in our rooms? Wha – what's going to happen to Yoshi –"
The singular reply to the two and half questions was the shut of the door in her face.
Once at the bottom, there was a bit of hesitance among all three boys as they stood in front of the stopped elevator, facing the heavy door down the corridor and knowing who the feeble light radiating within would reveal.
"Alright," said Ness, and though he spoke in a whisper his voice boomed with reverberating echoes, "you two stop when we're five, no, ten feet from that door. I'm gonna go talk to Yoshi alone."
"Why alone?" Toon Link frowned. Ness could not tell if he was genuinely appalled or if he was secretly relieved to be as far away from Yoshi as possible. Certainly his words seemed to have had some effect of courage and determination in the two boys.
"You've seen how he clammed up when it was all three of us. Maybe he'll open up if I see him by myself. I've known him longest. We're two halves of a whole. The other's best friend." Then, as a quick afterthought, "no offense."
"None taken," Lucas muttered, while Toon Link nodded in agreement. "We better hurry up, Ness. It's already been about forty minutes. Lucario's gonna be checking on us soon."
And so hurry up they did, brisk-walking down the corridor with the light of a PK Fire orb in Ness's hand to guide them. It was not that long, perhaps about fifty yards in total, but the vast emptiness suffocated their grasp of time, artificially stretched each second into ten. There was something else, too, at least for Ness, that seemed to lock his ankles in ball and chain, slow his walk down to a crawl. Ness only realized what it was when he was an arm's length away from laying his hand on the rusted surface of the bolted door. It was fear. Fear that Yoshi had become ragged ghost of his former self, a mere shadow of the grand friend he used to be. To see the once-bubbly and playful Yoshi broken beyond the pitiful state he saw him last would shatter what was once an unbreakable identity, would alter the course of their friendship forever.
Ness was not sure if he was ready for such a change, as he stood on his tip-toes and peered through the bars of the window.
He saw a large circular cavern, almost as dark and empty as the corridor he had just traversed. Its darkness was pierced by the light of the Podoboo attempting to escape its prism box, its emptiness occupied by a heart-wrenching familiar form covered in layers of blankets and quilts.
He thought the blanketed lump was still at first, and for one terrible second Ness could not breathe. Then he saw a very slow, very small rise of the lump, followed by an equally slow, equally small fall.
Ness extinguished the PK Fire in his hand and wrapped his hands around the bars. He spoke, softly at first, "Yoshi?"
No response. Ness tried again, louder this time. "Yoshi?"
The blanket stirred. The quilt rustled. Ness held his breath as the shadows on the wall danced into new shapes.
Then a familiar head revealed its presence from its fabric fortress.
"Ness?" it croaked.
The reason why Link had asked Lucina about her polishing habit wasn't because it was some kind of swordie code for "Mario is fucking retarded haHAA". Rather, while he and Lucario were off dragging Yoshi to Hell, Mario and Samus had remained in the Nintendirector's office and had analyzed Lucina's Falchion with a security R.O.B. head – the same kind used at the gates of the Smash Mansion to read their cards and handprints before allowing or denying entry.
The R.O.B. head had scanned the hilt of the Falchion with a green beam of laser from its eyes. It had cross-referenced the detected fingerprints with its internal database. In five seconds it announced its results: "Fingerprint analysis complete. Matched: Lucina. And, Yoshi."
There was a long silence between Mario and Samus after that.
"Well, I guess that all but confirms it, doesn't it?" Samus said grimly.
"Not quite," Mario said as he readied the R.O.B. head for one more fingerprint scan. "Who – who knows. Maybe the Glitch possess the ability to prevent the fingerprints of its host from imprinting onto the surfaces it grips. It would be highly convenient, after all, in order to conceal its identity…"
"And rather inconvenient for us," Samus snorted as she leafed through the shelf of vinyls for the Metroid Prime soundtrack.
"You look like shit," Ness said.
It was not an unfair observation. Varying shades of ugly blue splotched all over Yoshi's skin, leaving little of the lively, healthy green, as though the perpetual lack of natural light had promoted some kind of fungal infection. His cheeks, once plump and rosy, now caved inwards, featuring pockets deep enough for Ness to press his thumbs in. The last of his flesh clung desperately to his skeleton, providing insignificant divide between skin and bones, and Ness, seeing how ghastly thin Yoshi now was, mumbled, "I – I should have brought some food –"
"They bring food," Yoshi spoke in a hoarse whisper, motioning to an empty tray by his foot. "Just not enough." Then, though he was weak and starved, his voice somehow managed to acquire some kind of urgent clarity, and Yoshi said, sharply, "Ness – what are you doing here?"
"I'm busting you out," Ness said. "By proving your innocence," he quickly added, as Yoshi opened his mouth, no doubt to express some very vocal concerns. "Listen, Yoshi – I don't have much time. Five minutes at most. So I need you to tell me everything, and don't you dare try to lie or squirm your way out of it this time. I know you know something, and if you want me to help you, I need to know too. Got it?"
They were going there, and already Yoshi could feel his heart accelerating as Ness offered him no time to invent any sort of plausible excuse. "What the hell were you doing in Luigi's room the other night?"
His response was automatic. "I – I already told you. I wasn't thinking straight, and just thought his room was…"
His voice died off, because one look at fearful look at Ness was enough to quell any feeble hope to throw Ness off from the truth.
"How fucking stupid do you think I am?" Ness was muttering in a deathly low whisper. He might as well be shouting. It was worse than shouting. His hands crackled with psionic bursts of rage, illuminating the darkness with furious tinges of pink. "You think I don't know something's up? I know. And I didn't come all the way down here and risk my life just to hear absolute fuck-all." Ness stabbed the center of Yoshi's shriveled nose with his finger. "So, for the last time. What were you doing in Luigi's room?"
There was an extremely painful silence. Yoshi looked at Ness, and Ness glared into Yoshi's feeble soul. Their pulses throbbed, one in impatience, the other in wild fear.
Finally Yoshi opened his mouth, but not before casting his eyes down. "I'm sorry, Ness."
The disappointment was palpable enough for even Lucas and Toon Link to trip all over it. Ness closed his eyes, tightened his fists over the bars. For a single intense second he manifested enough energy in his arms to almost rip the heavy, bolted door off its hinges.
"Okay," Ness said, strangely calm as he opened his eyes again. The light from the Podoboo hurt. Looking at Yoshi's downcast head made him want to hurt. Ness stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Okay," he said again. He looked away, blew a hot whistle of repressed air. "Fine." A pause, during which neither Smashers could look the other in his eyes. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll figure it out myself."
His precious five minutes was up; he did not have to look behind to see Lucas and Toon Link silently gesturing to know. From his pockets Ness withdrew one of his most cherished belongings – his iSaturn. He had fully charged it just for this purporse, had even loaded with even more songs just yesterday. "Keep it safe. Don't go out of your mind locked up all alone in here," he said as he slotted the device through the gap between the bars. As a quick afterthought he took out the marker pen and piece of paper and dropped those into Yoshi's hands, too.
Yoshi looked at the assortment of little distractions that Ness had dropped into his hands, and muttered, "Thanks." And, as though to alleviate some of his overwhelming guilt, "just – keep a close eye on Luigi."
Ness nodded as he turned away. He already was gonna. He took a step. He took one more. He took a grudging half-step, and then he stopped. He stood there, body shaking. Then, without warning, completely out of the blue, he whipped back around and slammed himself against the door.
"You know, you might think the worst thing you've ever done is whatever you're hiding from me right now," Ness hissed, acid dripping from every syllable in his tone. "But it's not. The worst thing you've ever done is that you abandoned me when you needed me the most. And I will never forgive you for that."
The words were loud enough for Toon Link and Lucas to hear. They stung, burned, caused water to leap into Yoshi's eyes. Ness breathed heavily, cheeks flushed from finally letting out all the poison and spewing it over Yoshi's forlorn face. Yoshi finally looked up, letting Ness's parting gifts to drop to the floor. In a pathetic voice, he whispered, "Ness…"
But he wouldn't hear any more of it. Ness turned back around and marched away. His loud, angry footsteps were the last things Yoshi heard, before the room reverted back to its blanketed silence, punctuated only by his own irregular breathing and throbbing heart.