A.N. I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! My exams are FINALLY over, meaning I can finish this story by the end of the week. And I need to finish this by Friday anyway because I'm going to France for 5 weeks on Saturday, meaning the upload schedule will be all over the place again by then. But with that said, enjoy.
CHAPTER 8
Meetings and Partings.
Rei and Adaman left Jubilife Town to a small fanfare of well-wishers and celebrators. It was no secret that the two of them were beginning a plan that'll finally put an end to Volo, permanently. Kamado made sure the word was spread, so that the people of Hisui could have some hope that the unease surrounding Volo would finally dissipate, but also so they could draw Volo out. The plan was heavily reliant on Volo confronting them on Mt. Coronet.
As the two of them left, Akari gave Rei a "good luck kiss", and Adaman was sure that Irida had a look of worry plastered all over her face. But, Adaman told himself, that was for the success of the mission. She wouldn't be worrying about his personal safety, would she? But as they began their journey, a small part of him kept nagging him that she was concerned about him. As much as he insisted that that wasn't the case, that small voice wouldn't going away.
The two continued to travel, going from village to village, so that their pokémon could rest, Rei could rest if the mark acted up and so that they could draw more attention to what they were doing. Both Adaman and Rei agreed that this part of the plan was risky, but they could spend weeks or even months camping out on Mt. Coronet before Volo found out otherwise. But the two kept their pokémon at the ready, just in case Volo decided to attack early.
As the days wore on, and villages and towns, as well as the mark hurting Rei, became less common, so they stopped less, Rei was starting to get on Adaman's nerves a bit. Whenever he wasn't sitting there clutching his head, or defending them against Alphas, Rei wouldn't shut up about Akari. At first, Adaman let him be, because he thought it was just lovesickness. But when he started talking about how Akari made him feel, Adaman immediately knew what this was about.
He continued to ignore him however, but eventually, he snapped. "Ok!" he yelled suddenly, causing Rei to jump a bit, "I know exactly what you're doing!" "What do you mean?" Rei asked with feigned innocence. "You know exactly what I mean!" Adaman replied angrily, "You're trying to get me to admit that I like Irida, aren't you?!" Rei sat there in silence for a few seconds, then started to laugh. "You know," he chuckled, "the fact that your mind immediately jumped to that conclusion just proves us right, right?" Adaman was furious with himself and said nothing.
Rei calmed down, then asked, "So does that mean we're right?" Adaman didn't say anything, in the hopes that Rei would give up. But the thought of actually going out with Irida caused his face to feel rather warm. He realised that he was blushing and that he'd just given himself away. "IT IS!" Rei laughed, celebrating a small bit, before he had to stop due to his head hurting. "If you tell anyone about this, I'll set Leafeon on you!" Adaman said angrily. "Don't worry I won't," Rei reassured him, "I don't need to. Everyone already knows." Rei then spent the next 15 minutes dodging Adaman's fists, before they moved on.
They continued on their way to Mt. Coronet, stopping at Cohita's house to heal their pokémon and see if she knew anything about Darkrai. She did, but it was stuff that Adaman had already shared. After that final meeting, they began their climb up the mountain. They decided to take the side of the Mountain, just in case Volo was lying in wait for them, or they could get the drop on him. But when they reached the top, they found that it was empty. But something about that felt off. They arrived at the Temple of Sinnoh to find it empty as well. As part of the plan, Kamado had all the security core members removed from the Temple, as well as the mountain entirely. They hoped that it would make Volo suspicious and go to investigate, but it seemed like he didn't.
Adaman sat down in the centre and began the first part of the plan. He sat in a meditative position and began to summon his link with Almighty Dialga, so that he could aid in the defeat of Darkrai and Volo. At first, Rei sat with him to keep company. But he eventually got bored and went to wander around the Temple. Adaman wanted to warn him about how Volo could ambush him that way, but he needed to concentrate on the link.
Eventually, Adaman felt the connection completely form between him and Dialga and ended the meditation. When he did, he saw Rei sitting there, waiting for him expectantly. "What do you want?" Adaman asked, rather curtly, "If you were waiting for me to finish linking with Dialga just to continue telling me about how much you love Akari, I swear to Arceus I'll throw you off this mountain." "That's not why I was waiting for you," Rei replied defensively, "I think you should see this."
Rei led Adaman to a spot behind the stairs leading up to the Temple of Sinnoh, where a small hole was cracked into the temple. But when Adaman investigated closer, he saw that it led to a small cave. A cave filled with food, bedding, and the strange scratchings of a madman all over the walls. "So, that's why we couldn't find him," said Adaman with amazement, "He's been hiding inside the Temple itself." Rei nodded. "We need to let Kamado know" he said. "Good idea" Adaman replied.
But as they were leaving Volo's hiding place, Adaman noticed one of the scratchings looked familiar. He called of Rei to stop, and he went to have a closer look. Then, he gasped. The scratchings weren't random markings, they were pictures. Pictures of a plan to pull Darkrai into Hisui, and to kill Rei once and for all.
Adaman ran out of the cave as fast as he could. "Rei!" he called, "Stay away from the temple. Your mark isn't Darkrai's, this was just a setup-!" But before he could finish, an explosion shook the foundations of the Temple and threw Rei to the ground. He stood up and ran over to Adaman. "We need to get out of here!" he said. Adaman nodded and they started running for the stairs.
But once again, the ground started to shake. Rei turned around to face Adaman, when his eyes widened and he shoved Adaman out of the way, before getting a face full of rocks and was sent flying off the mountain. Adaman quickly pulled his flute out and summoned his own Braviary, who caught Rei and carried him back to Jubilife.
As Adaman watched, something hard and heavy knocked into his back and threw him off as well. he tried to summon Dialga to catch him, but before he could finish, something else struck him and sent him spinning. He went crashing into the side of the mountain a few times before he hit the snow with a soft thud. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a silhouette of a man with an Arceus style haircut. As everything faded to black, Adaman mentally kicked himself for falling for that. "I'm sorry Irida" was the last thing he said, before the world went dark.
Well that got dramatic fast. I hope the wait was worth it. and anyway, if you thought that cliff-hanger was bad, just imagine if I left it there for 10 days. But with that, I'll see you tomorrow with chapter 9.
