Chapter 15: A Player's Memory
Warning: This chapter has a small amount of bad language in it.
As I was about to enter the Blitzball arena I hesitated. This place was somehow welcoming and yet it was eerie. I walked through the entrance finally after a few moments and began to make my way towards the stadium. It was so quiet in here, with the walls blocking out the music of the night.
I began climbing the stand to the top so that I could see where Auron was exactly.
I had my head bowed down as I walked over each step, deep in thought about the words the young boy had said to me.
Auron had a lot to explain. He had obviously made me sound like a monster to that boy. Imagine what I was to the other people, if what the boy said was true.
"Ah master…at last." Came Auron's relieved voice from above, breaking my thoughts.
I lifted my head to see him at the very top clearly awaiting my assistance with something.
I wanted to talk to him about the situation with the boy, but decided not to bring up another problem, when we already had a difficult one to deal with as it was.
"Sir Auron…you required my presence here?" I stated questioningly as I reached the top of the stand.
"Yes I did master…" he trailed off. "I trust your journey was most…interesting." He said clearly referring to the crowd below.
I brushed past him to lean my elbows on the edge of the stand, looking down at the people below, my hair falling down on the sides of my face. I sometimes felt that I would give anything to be one of them. To belong somewhere, without worries, without missions…without being lonely.
"Yes it was…I've never seen so many bare stomachs in my life." I said reminiscing on the girls with short tops and men without any shirts on at all. But mostly I focused on the girls seeing that I was in fact a man.
My mind flew back to the situation at hand and I removed my eyes from the world I would never know. I looked at Auron over my shoulder and spoke.
"So what do you know about the girl?" I said rather calmly, when I should have been practically shaking Auron to death, forcing him to tell me what we had to do to get her back.
"I'm glad you asked. If you'll follow me I'll show you." He said motioning for me to follow him with his left black-gloved hand.
He began to walk quickly to his left, along the top of the stand towards a setup, of what looked like screens in the distance.
I hurried to catch up to him, wanting to know what it was. On the way I was startled when another large crackle of fireworks erupted in the night sky. This time they were colours of blue and red, and as the glittering dust fell, it formed into two red hearts, floating above what looked like a blue spring.
Beautiful. I thought as I stood still and watched as the dust fell downwards.
Auron seemed to notice I wasn't following him, because the next thing I knew he was calling out to me.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." I said running, annoyed that he was giving me a look at his attitude.
I finally reached his side and realised that I had been right about the setup. There were black screens everywhere, with nothing showing on them. He looked at me with his sinister smile, which he only showed when he had completed some crazy invention, or had an ingenious plan bubbling in his mind.
"What do you think?" he asked keeping his cool.
I gave him the same look I always gave him when he asked me about one of his carefully constructed toys. I raised my left eyebrow and rubbed my chin as if I was actually observing it with interest.
"Well it's different. But if we are to find the girl tonight…"I trailed off calmly getting ready to yell the last part, "YOU NEED TO LET ME THINK AND STOP CALLING FOR ME TO LOOK AT ANOTHER OF YOUR RIDICULOUS CREATIONS!"
I proceeded to leave, but was stopped by Auron's laugh. I frowned and turned, my cloak flying behind me in the process.
"Are you laughing at me Auron?" I said threateningly as I levelled my eyes with his.
"No of course not master…I just hoped you would have appreciated my plan for recapturing the girl." He explained.
"What plan…it's just a bunch of blank screens." I shouted gesturing my right hand towards the screens behind him.
"Wow he's cute." Giggled some voices from behind.
My ears pricked up and I turned around to see who would be in here when they knew it was forbidden. Nothing was there.
Strange, I could have sworn…
"Master…are you alright?" Auron questioned, without much concern in his voice.
"Um…yes…I thought I…" I trailed off and turned back to Auron focusing on what was more important at the moment, and that was finding the girl. "As I was saying…what plan?"
"Master…things aren't always what they seem…I would have thought that you of all people would have known that." He said seriously as he reached back to press a black button, on the side of what appeared to be the main compartment.
I looked on as the screens flickered a bit and a few moments later they showed several parts of Zanarkand. I suddenly felt all the anger in my body leave, to be replaced by a feeling of amazement.
I strode over to the screens and looked at the streets below on the center screen. It was so clear and I could hear sound as well. I decided to cover my look of awe up with annoyance, "Why did you have to do this here in the arena anyway?"
"Because no one ever comes here. Less chance of disturbance." He explained, and noticed my interest in one of his inventions for once.
Auron suddenly stood next to me and whispered, "I'll show you a little trick."
He then pointed his index finger to one of the women in the crowd and immediately the screen zoomed in to the top half of her body.
I couldn't believe what Auron had just done. Although this girl may have been just as promiscuous as I assumed the rest of them were, she didn't deserve to be subjected to something as inappropriate as this.
I glared at Auron and said, "Zoom out or I'm not going to listen to another word you have to say about this invention of yours." I threatened.
He removed his finger and the screen zoomed out to gaze upon the tiny heads of the crowd once more.
He cleared his throat loudly, as if he knew what he had done was indecent and continued on seriously, "The point is, all of the screens are touch sensitive and no matter how hard that girl tries to hide, we'll find her." He reassured as he gestured to the other screens around him.
I rested my eyes on a screen on my left, which showed the Zanatorium grounds. I strode over to it with interest. Once there, I used the zoom in technique and pointed my finger at a group of sentinels who appeared to be laughing. I zoomed in to see what the problem was and saw that one of my men was standing there in only his underwear, yelling about something. I zoomed in closer to hear what he was saying and shut my eyes, not exactly wanting to have that image of one of my men imbedded in my mind.
I could hear him yelling, "The stupid bitch stole my uniform. She took my weapons and everything. Cunning little…" he trailed off as one of the men interrupted.
"Well it's clearly your fault. Thinking that she actually wanted to have you." Teased one of the men, saying it in a way as if to say, you're stupid to think any girl would want you.
"Fuck off Josh!" he cursed.
"Fool. He always manages to get in trouble no matter what he does." Josh laughed once more. "Come on we better go get her. She can't of gone too far." He said more seriously.
Clearly the other man had moved on now, because they were talking as if he wasn't there. I opened my eyes and saw the other group of men start to head away towards the forest.
"Auron!" I called.
He appeared at my side quickly waiting for me to speak.
"Those men were just talking about the girl I swear. One of the men seemed to have been attacked by her. He was wearing nothing. Why would she steal his clothes?" I blurted out in a hurry, looking at Auron for an answer.
He folded his arms and appeared to be thinking. A few minutes later he smiled and said, "She's using it as a disguise. The clever girl." He said marvelling over his realisation.
I looked at him, annoyed that he was somewhat admiring her.
"What is so clever about it? She just attacked one of my men." I said trying to make him see the facts of the matter.
"Hmm…indeed…seems like your men need more training in the area of women." He said as if it was a laughing matter.
"Auron please…you called me here to recapture the girl, not to discuss her as if she is somewhat of an impressive piece of work." I argued annoyed that he was not focusing on the dangerous situation. Who knew what this girl was capable of if she had managed to get this far. But I couldn't help thinking that she was to some extent quite impressive, being able to do what she did.
His smile faded and he spoke in his gruff voice once more, "Sorry master…"
I nodded and pointed towards the edge of the screen, "Where's the screen that leads into the forest? The men said that they were going to find her in there." I explained.
Auron only shook his head, turned back to the other screens and said, "I haven't got one for that part of Zanarkand."
I stared at his back in disbelief, "What do you mean you haven't got a screen for the forest?"
He flung his arms up in the air and yelled, "I mean I haven't planted a camera in there yet, so therefore we can't see anything that's going on in there."
He turned to face me frustrated.
"You can lower your tone to a lower level Auron. You forget your place." I whispered firmly.
He let his frown turn into a look of remorse. "I apologise."
There was not a word spoken until I decided to leave.
"I'm going into the forest. Give me a camera so I can transmit what I see back to the screens." I commanded looking into his eyes, which showed no emotion, if that was at all possible. Well I guess it was for him anyway.
"I can't allow you to go into the forest alone." He said rather disturbingly as he inched his way towards me.
I stepped back a bit feeling the edge of the top stand beneath my black boots.
"I shall do whatever I feel is necessary." I stated.
His attitude suddenly changed too quickly in my opinion. He stepped back, looked into my eyes strangely and whispered, "As you wish."
I kept my eyes on him a few moments longer before turning to walk down the stand.
Flash Back
"Hey Tidus catch!" came a voice from the left.
I turned to see a ball flying towards me and as it got closer my hands flew out expertly to catch it. I stared at it confused but felt my body shoot towards a hoop. As I got closer a young teenager swam towards me and was about to punch me out in order to grab the ball.
But I ducked and he went flying over my head. I looked back and smiled mischievously at my little manoeuvre.
I then shot the ball forward and watched it fall into the hoop.
Cheers from the crowd. I stared around and saw people in the stadium applauding and all my teammates swam over to pat me on the back, greeting me with high-fives.
"Alright!" I joined in.
I back flipped in the water and felt the adrenaline pump through my veins.
As I looked up to continue on, I realised that everything was fading away and I was travelling through a world of oblivion.
End Flash Back"…you alright? Master don't fall." Called Auron's voice as he grabbed onto my left arm and hauled me back onto the top stand.
I fell flat on my stomach, running through my mind everything that had just happened. I lay there coughing as if I had been holding my breath for the longest time.
Auron tried to help me up after a few minutes. I accepted his outstretched hand and puled myself up the ground.
I felt a little shaken as I strained to say, "What…happened?"
"You were under the influence of one of the players." He explained as he returned to the screens.
I widened my eyes in horror and jumped around in fright, (very unprofessionally), to make sure that whatever or whoever it was, wouldn't dare touch me again.
"It's alright master I scared him away." He reassured from where he was fiddling around with the screens. He made it sound like he was my father or something, coming to save me from my nightmare in the night.
I wasn't convinced and began to run down the stadium stairs hurriedly towards the exit.
"Master where are you going?' Auron called out as he heard my boots pound against the metal stands below.
"I'm leaving here that's for sure. You know how much I hate it here." I yelled back at him, as I landed on the bottom floor and ran for the exit ahead, not looking back.
I wasn't staying there a minute longer. I had a better chance of catching the girl, by trying to find her my own way.
A/N: Thanks for all your kind reviews so far. I hope this chapter is good enough for a review.
Enjoy!
Yunie Tidus