Day 2, 10:00 AM: Sunny
The sunlight creeping in through the window was enough to slowly rouse me up from sleep. Good god, it felt good to not wake up to an alarm clock. Slowly, I pulled myself up with a stretch as I started to wipe the sleep out of my eyes. Shinku was already out of bed, stretching herself and getting herself ready to go. Zhou was sitting at the end of the bed, watching. And Perna, well, she hadn't moved from her spot from last night, still fast asleep. From the way she acted yesterday, I don't she's ever had a night that pleasant, especially with that dreamy smile on her face.
"Wow...you're up early, you two."
Shinku nodded at me, and Zhou gave a backwards wave. "Just wanted to be ready whenever you were, Master."
"An' I don't sleep much t' begin with, so here I am," said Zhou with a chuckle.
Perna shifted in her sleep a little, finally waking up groggily. She had clearly been out like a light. It took her a moment to remember the situation she was in and gasped slightly. "O-Oh! Were you a-all...waiting on me? I'm sorry!" she said, bowing her head forward.
I reached over to pat her on the head. "Don't worry, I just got up too." The poor girl was so flustered so easily; they'd have to work on that.
"An' stop apologizin' already, would ya? Save it for when it'd actually matter," Zhou said, not even turning around but chiding the girl in her own way.
"I-I'm so-oh...A-Alright...so, Mary, sir, what are we doing today?"
I had to stop and consider that. They needed to make their way to their first gym, that being farther ahead in Pewter if the map was right. They'd have to pass through Viridian Forest, too. That might be tricky...I clasped both of my hands together to get their attention. "Okay! The first thing we're doing today is making sure everyone is on par with each other! So...we're gonna be doing a little training today, and then heading for our next destination."
Shinku nodded, wordlessly accepting what I had to say. "O-Okay! You believed in me, so I'm...going to do my best!" said Perna, looking determined. Zhou just laughed and gave a salute. It didn't take long for me to get dressed and ready to go, and our intrepid little group found themselves back to the area we first met Perna. It was still rather early, and devoid of other trainers, so it was the perfect time to work on building up our team's experience.
The wilds were out in force today, with puppets going about their business and eager for a fight. Shinku and Zhao were handling themselves quite well, picking up on the flow quite quickly. Perna, however, took a little bit longer before things started to click into place for her. Her small wings were surprisingly strong, and were quite effective at stirring up strong gusts of wind. At first, she seemed terrified of battle, and had to have one of the other two jump in occasionally. However, eventually, I could see her expression change, into something slightly more confident. Something told me we wouldn't be fixing this right away, but as a gradual process. At the very least, she was having less problems simply battling.
The ArtBook that the Professor had given us seemed to have some sort of a numerical listing for the puppets that were currently with me. I wasn't quite sure how that worked, but I figured it was just a science thing. The group kept going until the ArtBook listed all three of them at "Level 10." I wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but it was a good bit higher than what they started at, so I was satisfied.
"That should be good. You guys ready t-"
"Yeah, that was great, Inaba!"
A familiar voice cut off whatever I was going to get out, from across the route. Almost on instinct, I ran in the direction of the voice, and I could feel a big grin on my face the whole time. It wasn't long before I found the source of the voice, that being a happy Ren holding Inaba tight in a hug.
"Oh, hey Mary!" she said with a wave. Inaba did the same with her sleeve dangling at the end of her arm. "What brings you out here? Oh, is this some of your puppets?" She said, leaning down to get a good look at Perna. She shrinked back at first, but relaxed a bit into Ren's open palm, cuddling affectionately. "Aww, how cute!"
"Yeah, we wanted to make sure everyone was prepared for the trip. You too?"
Ren nodded. "I heard the trip to Pewter can be tough for beginners, so I wanted to be sure. Plus, I kinda wanted to see the Puppet League firsthand, even if I couldn't get in."
"Wait, that's here?" I said with a puzzled look. Admittedly, I hadn't looked too hard at the map, but I figured it was farther out of the way.
She nodded again, beckoning me to follow. "Come on, come see!" We walked a fair distance before coming across a truly massive building in the middle of the route. It was awe inspiring, and screamed "power." "Wooow..." I couldn't help but let out. For me, this was my end goal. More than just as a trainer, but for Yukari's little game, too.
"Isn't it incredible? This is every trainer's ultimate goal, to take on the Elite 4 and try for a shot at being Champion!" That's right, for Ren, this was just part of the experience. She didn't have anything like that on her mind. Hopefully, she could stay that way and just enjoy the ride.
"Hey, Mary..." she said, looking somewhat nervous. "Would you like to have a rematch? I kind of want to see how much we've both grown! Plus, I want to see your cute puppets in action!" Ren said with a cute smile. More and more I was noticing how this journey was helping her confidence.
"Ya said ya won the last one, right kid? It'd probably be rude to turn her down, now dont'cha think?" said Zhou from behind. She had a point, it was only fair. Plus, he wanted to see how much things had changed.
"...alright! We'll do it!" I said. She looked positively overjoyed at my answer, and I was caught off guard by the sudden hug, one that was jumping up and down. Not entirely a bad thing, though, as I found myself hugging back just as fast.
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you! Oh, should we, uh, move somewhere else...?" she said, noticing the field they were in.
I shook my head at the question. "Nah, right here should be fine. It'll be like a real trainer battle!"
"Okay, then...let's all do our best!" She said, detaching from the hug and moving a fair distance away. She reached into her bag and pulled out an orb, throwing it to release a Puppet I'd never seen before. The ArtBook labeled it as a Wriggle, some kind of bug. It had green hair, and draped itself in a black cloak. It seemed pretty serious, and silent.
Perna chimed in while I was considering my first move, pulling at my skirt. "I...I'd like to go first! I want to prove myself!"
While I didn't know anything about what this puppet was capable of, I knew Perna had been building up her confidence over the course of the day. She had faith in herself now, so she would at least give her the chance she wanted. "Alright, but don't push too hard, okay? We don't know what we're dealing with here..."
She nodded, a fire in her eyes that I hadn't seen before. "I-I won't let you down!" she said, fluttering in front of me. She was trying to size up the opponent, but the stoic nature it put on was making that difficult. Without warning, she tried a fierce Gust attack to push it off balance, which seemed to definitely have an effect on it, but not enough to blow it off of it's feet. However, it made no retaliation. It just stood there...staring. To say it was unnerving was the understatement of the century.
"Something's weird about this...be careful out there, Perna!"
She nodded, but seemed confident. She let out another powerful flap of her wings, pushing the puppet back ever so slightly. She seemed ready to let out another, expecting yet another turn of that deathly silence, before the figure rushed forward at a blinding speed, a black and green blur before striking with an absolutely brutal kick to the side of Perna's head, the blow sending her flying and careening into the ground, the impact enough to drag her through the ground when she landed. It had tattered her dress as she laid, battered and bruised, and hanging on by a thread.
"PERNA!" I screamed, unsure of how to react to the situation. If Perna took another hit like that, there was no way she was going to make it. I felt my entire body tense up as the image of her, prone on theg ground, was the only thing I could see.
"Bimo! That's too rough!" I heard Ren say. "We're not trying to kill someone, it's just a spar!"
"...spar?" I heard a new voice say. I assumed it was the other puppet. "A 'spar' should be considered training, right? No opponent will give you that courtesy."
"B-But..." she said back. She was clearly as distraught as I was.
Lost in a sea of indecision, I felt a slap across my face that dragged me back into reality. As my vision could focus on something else again, I noticed it was one of Shinku's dolls. "Master, make the call!"
I shook off the indecision plaguing my thoughts. They alone weren't going to save Perna. I saw the puppet called Bimo going in for the finishing blow. "SHINKU!"
One of the same dolls launched forward from behind me, grabbing her and quickly throwing Perna into my arms as she rushed forward to intercept the blow from the green haired puppet, forming a shield using a few puppets and blowing the other back. "I've been watching your movements," Shinku said, recalling the batch of dolls to her person, "and I know how ton react to it, now." Perna was breathing heavily as I cradled her in my arms, and she looked like a mess.
The one that Ren called Bimo looked Shinku intently. "...you seem like you know what you're doing. Good." Wordlessly, the Wriggle rushed forward to deliver another strike, this time from behind, but the dolls she manifested took the blow with a clang against their shield. The group quickly dispersed, leaving it wide open for a blast from Shinku's palm, a condensed strike of kinetic energy that flew Bimo back, spinning through the air.
At first, it seemed to land on its feet, sliding backwards as it stood, before going down on one knee, panting. It seemed the previous attacks combined with the blows from Shinku took their toll, and it could no longer stand. "...well done. You win." She nodded to Ren, who jumped a little when she realized she needed to take action, the previous hit still having an affect on her too, it seems. She returned Bimo to its ball without a word.
From her shoulder, her other puppet perked up when it put two and two together. "Hey, hey, is it my turn yet?! Yaaay! Let's go!" Inaba said, jumping off of Ren's shoulder and bopping back and forth, ready for a scrap. It clearly had energy to spare.
Shinku readied herself to start, but felt a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I think it'd be good if you took it easy, alright? You're hiding how hurt you are pretty well, but it'd be no good if you pushed yourself too hard, eh?" said the wizened voice of Zhou. Both of us were surprised to see her there, since last time I noticed her, she was a fair distance behind the two of us. She scowled a little, clearly upset that she had read her like a book, and looked back to my order.
"...she's right, Shinku. Swap out."
She nodded at the order. "As you wish." She said, moving back to my side.
"Awwwwww...you're not gonna give me that fight, Shinku?!"
"Don't you worry about that, runt. I'm more than you can handle." said Zhou with a wily smile on her face.
"You better, old woman!" She said, charging forward to start the fight herself. Zhou didn't seem too perturbed by the act, gathering a lump of dirt in her hands. Right before she would have collided with her, Zhou flung that same dirt directly at Inaba's face, obscuring her vision as the slap that came from Inaba sailed harmlessly past Zhou's body. "AUGH, MY EYES!" Inaba cried out as it tried to wipe them away.
Zhou let out a little chuckle at her surprise. "You better be careful there, kid. Not everyone's gonna fight fair out there." She said before taking one of Inaba's dangling sleeves in her hand, spinning her forward and delivering a strong sock to her face.
"Y-You're pretty good, for an old timer, ain't ya? But I ain't givin' up that easy!" She said, before going for a blast out of her eyes. Zhou quickly moved out of the way before throwing another splotch of dirt in her eyes. "AW DAMMIT, NOT AGA-" was all she got out before taking the powerful shoulder charge that sent her flying, landing face first. "Alright, alright, I give! I'm sick of getting mud thrown in my eyes! I'm done!"
Zhou let out a hearty laugh at her victory. Ren quickly scooped up Inaba and placed her on her shoulder, and ran over to me.
"We need to get to a center!" Her look was one of pure concern, and she didn't seem upset at all about losing, but was instead worried about Perna's health. Her breathing had stabilized, but she was still badly hurt enough that she was out cold.
"Y-Yeah, we should." I weakly said back, the two of us (along with Shinku on my own shoulder and Zhou keeping pace behind us) ran all the way back to Viridian, where Perna was put into intensive care.
The two of us were left to sit for a few hours. I told Ren that it was fine, but she wanted to stay regardless. She felt personally responsible for all of this. "I...I never wanted to hurt anyone...I-I just wanted to...be a trainer and have fun with puppets, you know? I didn't want...this..." She looked like she was about to cry.
I quickly wrapped her into a hug of my own. "Ren, it's okay. This...happens. It's not something you should blame yourself for."
"B-But..."
"Shh, it's okay. Don't beat yourself up over this, alright? Accidents happen."
Something in Ren seem to pour out at that point as she accepted the hug and started to sob a little. I stayed with her for what felt like hours like that, just letting her let it all out. In a way, this was an experience for both of us. Neither of us had ever seen a puppet so close to death. So close to the idea that, in that instant, they could have ceased to exist. In a way, it was chilling for both of us. I rocked a little back and forth in an effort to calm her in the hug, but I couldn't help but cry a little, too.
It was about 4 hours before the nurse came back out, with a familiar green haired fairy on a stretcher. She looked good as new, as the both of us rushed forward to see her. "Perna, how are you feeling?" I asked her.
"Better than ever! Thanks for worrying about me, though." she said with a big smile.
Ren sheepishly approached Perna next. "I...I'm really sorry...Bimo sometimes takes these kinds of things really seriously, and-"
"It's fine, really! We...we all knew the risks. Every puppet does, before a battle. So don't worry about it, okay, Ren, sir?"
Ren only nodded back, likely a little relieved internally. I looked at her for a minute. Even as she continued to get more confident, she was still the same caring girl I knew deep down. "So, Ren, what are you going to do now?"
"M-Me? I think...I'll stick around here and train a little. It seems like...a good area, don't you think?"
I nodded, thinking the same thing earlier. "Probably a smart idea. We're gonna head North to Pewter, though. We're not gonna get anywhere unless we start working on this whole Gym Challenge thing, right?"
"Yeah. I'll be heading that way eventually, but I-I just want to be sure, is all...A-And Mary?" she said, before pulling me into another tight hug. "Thank you. Really." she whispered into my ear, her breath rubbing against it.
I felt a sharp blush creep up on my face at that. "S-Sure, Ren. Y-You know I'll always b-be there for you, right?"
She pulled back with a giggle, our eyes locked. I never noticed how pretty her eyes were. "Of course. I'm so lucky to have you. I guess you should be on your way before it gets too late, right?"
It took me a moment to collect my thoughts. "R-Right! Are we ready to go, guys?" Shinku and Perna nodded, while Zhou gave a half-hearted salute. "T-Then...you take care of yourself while we're gone, alright?"
"You too. We'll see each other again. Take care, alright?"
With that, our little group made our way out of the center. Right as we made our way out of both eye and earshot of the center, I heard Zhou perk up from the back. "Man, you got it bad for that girl, don't you?"
I felt my entire body light up in embarrassment as I turned to face her. "I-It's not like that! Ren's just...a really good friend, that's all."
She seemed to chuckle at that response. "It's not good to lie to yourself, you know?"
"W-Whatever! Let's just go!" I said, whirling back around and stomping onward in a huff. Zhou was just teasing, she always just saw Ren as a friend! A friend that...sometimes she thought was kind of attractive. There's nothing wrong with that! We're just...friends.
...right?
-Chapter 6 END