DISCLAIMER: Bad, bad! (bonks self with inflatable baseball bat) I've been immensely slow to update. I'll do better! Promise! And I apologize in advance to anyone who detests blitzball.
I don't own FFX. They belong to Squaresoft, or Square Enix, or whatever they call themselves.
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Mercifully, they landed in Luca early the next day. Seymour had had quite enough of Cid scowling at him suspiciously, and of Rikku cheerfully worsening the situation by relating things in the most wrong-sounding way imaginable. The closest thing Seymour had to an ally was Auron, who frowned on Rikku's perceived immaturity. However, even Auron was caught grinning slightly at the sight of Rikku, intent upon making Seymour as glam rock as possible, chasing the former maester down the bridge with makeup. Seymour had emerged from that episode looking like a flamboyant, glittery clown. Luckily for him, Rikku was terrified of clowns and had removed the makeup promptly.
The worst Seymour had to put up with in Luca were more schemes from Rikku and snickers from Wakka and Lulu. And on Luca there was a chance he could ditch them and get lost in the crowd. Rikku's makeover backfired that way—he now blended in with the crowd and would be that much harder to find. Of course, Rikku could always put him to sleep. But if he got far enough away from her, he could wake up before she found him and keep going. All he had to do was wait for an opening...
"Okay, who's going where?" Wakka asked the group. "I wanna catch a blitzball game. And, y'know, Tidus might be at the stadium. "
Yes, Seymour though to himself. Have your fun. Split up.
"I will go check the hotels," Lulu offered. "Ronsos are not commonplace. Any concierge would remember Kimahri."
Yes, that makes perfect sense. Spread out. Go your separate ways...
"Hold on," Auron interrupted. "No matter where we go, we all go together."
Damn you!
"We can cover more ground if we separate," Wakka said.
"True. But what good does it do to have Yuna in one place and Seymour in another?"
"You're right," Lulu said. "Then where do we begin?"
"Blitz," Wakka said emphatically. "If the Aurochs play today, there's no way Tidus and Yuna would miss it. And if the team's not playing, they'd at least have seen them at some point, ya?"
"Yeah," Rikku nodded. "And I want to visit Brother, too."
Seymour felt his eye twitch. Wonderful. More overprotective male relatives.
"Then it's settled. Blitzball it is." Lulu smiled halfway. "So long as Wakka does not decide to regain his lost blitzball glory..."
"No way!" Wakka shook his head. "I'm retired. And anyway, I want my triumphant comeback to be the most spectacular thing the stadium's ever seen, ya? Gotta practice first!"
Lulu chuckled as Wakka flexed his arms overdramatically. "I suppose so." Seymour noticed Rikku watching this exchange with immense interest.
"Come then," Auron said. "We go to the stadium."
)(
"Women afoot," Lulu called into the Aurochs' locker room after knocking.
"Hey, Lulu! Just a sec!" a voice answered. Seymour heard a flurry of movements from behind the closed door as the team scrambled to make themselves decent. "Come in!"
The group entered the locker room to find five members of the Besaid Aurochs lounging in their blitz pants. The nearest one, a dark-skinned man with blond hair, waved at them in greeting. "Wakka, Lulu, how you guys doing?"
"We're fine, Jassu." Wakka gripped Jassu's hand in greeting.
"We weren't expecting you," said a bearded, brown-haired Auroch. "What brings you to Luca?"
"We're looking for Yuna," Wakka replied. "She's on vacation with Tidus and Kimahri. You seen them?"
"Ya, just a few days ago," said a pale, bald Auroch with a green headband. "Tidus played for us the last couple of games. Too bad the kid can't play full-time."
"Especially now," a redheaded Auroch added. "We lost that Ronso we got during the tournament. Signed on with the Glories a couple weeks ago, after his contract ran out. We've been trying to sign someone new, but no luck."
"We got a game today against the Luca Goers," said the last Auroch, a rotund man with short brown hair. He looked pleadingly at Wakka. "D'you think you could maybe—"
"Keepa, no. I'm retired, guys. You know how long it's been since I practiced?"
"That doesn't matter," said Jassu. "We just need a sixth guy so we can play. And you were always better than us, Wakka. Even out of shape you can't be too bad." "I dunno—"
"Pleeeeeease?" The team gazed at him pleadingly, trying to look as pitiful as possible. Wakka started caving.
"Well, Wakka," Lulu said with a small smile. "You heard them. It looks like your triumphant comeback is happening sooner than expected."
Wakka groaned and drooped his shoulders. "All right, all right, I'll play." The Aurochs cheered. "But only for this one game!" They promptly signed him to a one-game contract.
"Do the Psyches have a game today?" Rikku asked. "Nah, don't think so," said the clad Auroch. "Why? Do you follow blitzball much?"
"Not avidly, but my brother plays for the Psyches. Blond guy with a Mohawk."
"Hey, I know him!" said the bearded Auroch. "That guy's your brother? He's fast. A real pain to catch."
"Oh, he's a real pain in everything else he does, too," Rikku said. "Try going for his left side next time. He's got a honking bruise on his ribs and it apparently really hurts when you touch it."
"Rikku, why're you plotting against your own brother?" Wakka laughed as he stretched.
"Because he's my brother!" Rikku explained. "It's what siblings do! And he owes me money."
"Hey, who's the tall guy?" The ponytailed Auroch pointed at Seymour.
"This is my friend Lycomedes," Rikku replied, pulling Seymour forward.
"He looks kinda familiar," said Keepa. "Does he blitz or something?"
"He's not bad," Wakka said. "I started teaching him the other day. Caught on quick."
"Would you be interested in playing for the Aurochs?" Jassu asked.
"No, no, I'm afraid he has obligations already," Rikku said before Seymour could answer. "He's joining the Crusaders."
"That's fine," Jassu said in understanding. "They need people now, especially after what happened at Mi'hen."
Everyone nodded somberly, remembering that failed attempt at defeating Sin. Seymour nodded too, but smiled to himself at the memory.
"You guys can go find seats in the stadium," the redhead told them. "The game starts in half an hour."
)(
The Aurochs and Goers were tied 3—3 at halftime. Wakka had done amazingly well, considering how long it had been since he'd played, and had assisted on all three Auroch goals. The girls were both very into the game, particularly Lulu. Seymour had not suspected the reticent black mage to be capable of such energy. She was as easily as loud as Rikku.
The two men, on the other hand, were not enjoying themselves. Auron thought it was pointless to sit and watch an entire blitzball game when Yuna's group was obviously not in the stands. He was all for leaving Wakka at the stadium and continuing the search with the remaining members of the party. He was even willing to allow Lulu to watch the game. However, Rikku had protested and pointed out that Auron had been the one who insisted that they all stay together. The elder guardian was stuck.
Seymour was simply bored out of his mind. He'd never liked watching blitzball, not even as a child. It was mildly interesting if he was an active participant, but that was all. Also, he was certain that he could do a much better job than the current players, who were making quite a few stupid mistakes. Seymour had been ecstatic when the horn sounded, thinking the game was over. He was dismayed when Lulu informed him that there was still another half left to play. Barring a massive onslaught of fiends or a Sin attack, there was nothing for him to look forward to.
The Aurochs won the faceoff and began zipping towards the Goer goal. Wakka got a pass, reeled back, and shot the ball hard. The keeper barely got a hand on it, but it was enough to deflect the ball into Goer hands. Now it was their turn to paddle doggedly towards their respective goal. Seymour found all of this exceedingly repetitive. The ball-carrying Goer darted around Jassu and the bald Auroch and shot the ball in an arc. Keepa dove to block it. A Goer leaped to catch the ball at the same time. The two collided, and something crunched. Keepa didn't get back up.
The officials stopped play. The Aurochs huddled worriedly around their fallen goaltender. From the looks of things, Keepa was injured. Two of his teammates helped him back to the locker room. Jassu said something to Wakka. Wakka frowned, but then nodded and motioned an official to come over. As he spoke, he gestured at the stands. After thinking for a moment, the official nodded and gave Wakka some parting words. Wakka swam towards the stands. As he reached the edge of the water, he gathered his energy and rocketed through the surface.
He landed semi-gracefully in front of Lulu. "Hey, Lu. Enjoying yourself?"
"Good game so far, Wakka," she replied. "What happened to Keepa?"
"He broke his wrist," Wakka said. "He'll be fine, but he's done for this game."
"So what does that mean?" Auron asked.
"Well, we forfeit if we don't have a sub. And even if we did have a sub, none of us is any good in goal. But we were thinking, maybe..." He looked at Seymour.
Seymour made a face. "Absolutely not."
"Please? You're really not bad at goal. And we'll have to forfeit if you don't."
"What do I care? I have no stock in this silly game. I don't want to be here. In fact, I would be glad to see you forfeit, because then we could leave."
"It pains me to say so, but I agree with Seymour," said Auron. "We're wasting time by staying here. The Aurochs can take a loss."
Wakka took umbrage at Auron's statement. "Maybe you should take a loss, ya?"
"Why don't we ask Rikku?" Lulu suggested. "She is the one who ultimately has jurisdiction here. Rikku, what do you want to do?"
"Why bother asking her?" Seymour grumbled. "She will make me play because she knows I don't want to play. And she likes this sport."
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Rikku said with a grin. "Go suit up."
Wakka slung an arm around Seymour's shoulder and led him to the locker room. "Welcome to the Aurochs, 'Lycomedes.'"
Seymour pulled on the pair of spare blitz pants that came closest to fitting him. He also signed a one-game contract with the Aurochs under the name Rikku had bestowed upon him. When the formalities were taken care of, Wakka took him back to the playing ground. "You can swim, right?" he asked as an afterthought. "I guess it's too late to do anything about it if you can't." They both entered the water.
"Yes, I can. What is it you expect from me?"
"See that triangle over there?" Wakka spoke slowly, as though he was explaining something to a small child. "You stay in front of it and make sure that the ball doesn't go in."
"I know that," Seymour snapped. "Anything else?"
"When you throw it back, throw it so our guys can get it."
Wakka left Seymour in the goal and went to take the faceoff. He won it and, through some tricky maneuvering, managed to score. 4—3, Aurochs. He lost the next faceoff. Seymour was faced with four Goers barreling towards him with the Aurochs in pursuit. The ball carrier was tackled, but still managed to complete a pass to a wide-open teammate. She shot it at the goal.
"You call that defense?" Seymour demanded. He angrily punched the ball, sending it whizzing torpedo-like to the other end. The Goer goaltender caught it in the breadbasket, but was knocked into the goal by the force of impact. Seymour noted the awed looks of the Aurochs and the shaken looks of the Goers with satisfaction. Perhaps this game had some entertainment value for him.
Play stopped for five minutes as the officials tried to determine whether Seymour had scored a goal or not. The goaltender had stopped the shot, but the ball had still entered the goal. They ruled that the goal stood, and the Auroch supporters cheered. The Goers and their fans were livid. 5—3, Aurochs.
The game resumed, and the Goers again won the faceoff. Again they made their way to the goal almost unfettered, and again Seymour had to make a save. This time he kicked the ball. It didn't go in the goal, but it did break the water's surface and hurtle skyward for some time before returning in-bounds. Wakka gained possession for the Aurochs but was triple-teamed by Goer defenders. He somehow managed a pass, but its recipient bobbled it. Had they been this awful in the first half? Seymour wondered. The Goers rounded back to make another run at the goal. Seymour blocked it.
This trend of Wakka receiving little support, the Goers traipsing into the Auroch zone, and Seymour blocking their shots continued for some time. Seymour was becoming disgusted with his team. Wakka was the only one worth anything. They needed to pick up the slack. The next time the Goers came charging in, Seymour stood perfectly still. When they shot, he moved aside and let the ball through to make the score 5—4. The Aurochs glared at Seymour, who glared back at them unconcernedly.
"Seymour!" came a scolding voice from the stands. Seymour turned to see Rikku holding Calhoun, with Auron and Lulu frantically trying to stop her. Not hearing them, Rikku pressed the button.
Seymour hissed as the shock echoed around his neck. To his surprise, he heard other yelps of pain as well. When the shock had subsided, he looked around the field and saw eleven charred, twitching blitzball players. Seymour realized that the electricity had traveled through the water. He'd built up some measure of resistance, perhaps due in part to his Guado lineage, but the blitzers hadn't. They now floated in limp unconsciousness to the surface, much like dead fish.
Seymour started to laugh long and hard at the spectacle. Behind him, Auron and Lulu yelled at an abashed Rikku. This caused him to laugh even harder. As his sides began to hurt, he saw the blitzball go floating past him. He glanced up at the clock. The clock counted down to the final minute. The game was still on.
Smiling, Seymour grabbed the ball. He lazily swam through the water to the Goers' end. Just before the horn sounded, he flicked the ball into the goal. 6—4, Aurochs.