Save State

By: Aviantei

File Four: Momentum Building

So with Fri's generous blessing, I proceeded to waste it equally generously for two days straight. I did the same things—or lack of things, to be more accurate—whilst the rest of the town worked on the festival preparations. I was able to plow through my guilt with the fact that I had already contributed and Fri had said that it was okay. I didn't even find out whatever it was that was so important for me to do, no matter how many times I visited Wicker and followed her around the laboratory grounds.

Frankly, I was stunned by my own selfishness.

And somehow, on the morning of the festival, I managed to push myself off the couch and into the outside world.

As expected, the opening ceremony went off without a hitch. I ended up watching from a back corner of the crowd, then split off as they dispersed. There wouldn't be anything too fascinating in terms of entertainment for a few hours, but all the stands that had miraculously spawned into existence over the past few days were more than willing to accommodate. I bought a to-go noodle dish for breakfast off of one of Errat's younger siblings to keep myself safe from advertising attempts and carried on.

The food alleys would be a death trap. So would any of the goods vendors. It was probably a good thing I had resisted the urge to bring Wicker along with me. For a small town festival, we sure managed to be aggressive with our wares. It was no wonder that Errat, I, and even Fri had always returned home without any pocket money when we were kids.

Somewhat safer were the game and entertainment alleys. Sure, game dealers could call out to you all they wanted, but they usually didn't have people to drag you to their stands for business. Usually. I managed to stick behind tourists and used them as bait to make my way through the crowds safely. Things were pretty hectic if I was suddenly wishing I was three feet tall again to make getting where I wanted to go easier.

All the stands were fantastically decorated, though. I often had to remind myself to not stop moving for fear of making myself easy prey. Of course, I had no doubt that the amount of work put into the displays was for the sake of drawing people's attention. The trade-off was that it was almost on the level of overstimulation, but maybe I had lost my sensitivity to bright colors a long time ago.

As such, what really stood out to me the most was the completely unoccupied and plain as could be wooden stall right by the place I had solved the expansion issue a few days ago.

I stopped and stared at it for a little while. To see a blank stall in the middle of such an active place was so eerie that I almost couldn't stand it. Eventually, my curiosity and annoyance at people dodging around me and obstructing my vision inspired me to cut through the crowd and observe it up close.

It was definitely creepy, no getting around it, and that was saying something for a perfectly neat construction of pale, clean wood. Maybe I had just never considered the idea that a stand could in fact be in a state between construction and decoration for a prolonged period of time. I tried to rack my brain in an attempt to remember any set up documents during my brief work phase, but came up blank. Either I hadn't paid close enough attention to that level of detail or that information had just become lost in the process of doing nothing for two days.

"In case you were wondering, that's for a special guest that happens to be running a bit late."

I was completely caught off guard from such a simple statement and nearly tripped over myself while jumping. The people running the adjacent stands and their respective crowds hadn't been paying me any mind, so I hadn't expected anyone at all to just come up and start talking to me. But sure enough, someone had, and I turned around to see the fading smirk on the face of Professor Spruce.

"Come on, Jijri, I didn't even do anything wrong and you start jumping around like that. How rude," the professor commented, a teasing lilt added into her words. I laughed in a way that could only be described as nervous, not knowing what else to do. "A Champion shouldn't be so jumpy, Jijri. You need to be more composed to do this sort of thing properly, after all."

When it came down to it, the two professors couldn't be more different. While Professor Maple exerted some form of motherly vibe off of her, Professor Spruce matched up with the experience I imagined was akin to having an aggressive older sister in a completely different bracket then what Fri was. In fact, trying to compare those two women together as well was nothing more than a death trap of what to do with yourself.

"Well, I guess I still need some work then," I admitted. From the looks of it, Professor Spruce was just as surprised by the statement as I was. I had never been one to say stuff like that as long as I could remember, but I guess there was a first time for everything. Before the conversation could go down a route I wasn't in the mood for, I decided to give it a different push. "You said that this stand was for someone that hasn't arrived yet?"

Professor Spruce narrowed her eyes, completely catching on to my pathetic excuse for a conversation change. Even so, she let me get away with it out of some odd moment of whatever was going on inside her head (I preferred to stay out of that neck of the woods, thank you very much). "Yeah, they were traveling from overseas and had some issues. They'll show up soon enough, but there were some major delays."

I let out a low whistle of appreciation. Having people come from different regions for the express purpose of our dinky little summer festival was a big achievement for the town as a whole. And looking back into the stand, I could realize just how big it was. There was even a little door built into the front to let people into the back of the booth, plus a rig that looked ready to support some cloth backgrounds and the like. They certainly weren't just trying to pull off a minor operation in this place, which lead to a very important question.

"Just what are they gonna set up in here?" I asked, taking the bait. Professor Spruce grinned, and I knew I was in for it.

"Oh, I am so glad you asked that, Jijri-bozu," she said, and I winced at the informal, completely unnecessary, and childlike insult. How was it that the professors were the same age again and happy with each other when they acted completely different? I let the objection slide in favor of not being distracted from the answer I had been seeking in the first place. Professor Spruce slapped her hand against the stand's surface a few times. "This here's going to be for a guest that can talk to Pokémon, got it?"

I blinked, the memory suddenly coming back to me. Come to think about it, Wato had said something like that a few days ago, hadn't he? I hadn't thought that there was any way something like that would be true, but I guess that I was wrong. I technically owed the guy an apology for doubting him like that, but he hadn't been aware of by distrust in the first place, but there was no need to make him aware of it just for the sake of apologizing. I would have to repent in some other way, say, a mental apology for a mental transgression. There, easy.

"So I guess he was right after all…" I muttered out loud. I shrugged when the professor gave me a raised-eyebrow kind of look. "It isn't some sort of scam artist thing, is it? I mean…" The speed at which Professor Spruce could slip into an angry frowning pout that should have been reserved for teenage girls was astounding. "Sorry, sorry. I trust you guys, but it's hard to confirm these sorts of things because there isn't a board of trustees or whatever to say it's the real deal."

Professor Spruce heaved an exasperated sigh, intentionally exaggerated for good measure. "Geez, I thought you were supposed to be less stuck up than this," she complained. "Don't tell me you let that girl whip you into shape so easy, bozu."

Ouch, she completely skipped over my name that time. I was reduced to a mere nonexistent honorific and nothing else. Surely it was illegal to use words like that on people once they passed the age of fifteen, right?

"Oh, whatever. If you don't believe me, that's your loss. But I'm telling you, this isn't some sideshow in an amusement park or anything. We've got the genuine article set up and ready to go once they get here. If you wanna check it yourself I'd like to see you try." With that rant out of her system, Professor Spruce grinned again. "It'll blow your mind, you know. Even I was speechless the first time I saw him in action."

For some reason, a speechless Professor Spruce was a more impressive idea to me than anyone that could talk to Pokémon. I would pay a ridiculous amount of money out of my Champion funds if it meant that someone would show me proof that such a thing had even occurred.

I had never been so grateful for the ability to keep my mouth shut in my entire life.

"Well, if it's as impressive as you say it is Professor, I'll be sure to check it out," I agreed, partially in the interest of saving my own skin from an unnecessary lecture that was just brimming, waiting on a horizon I intended to run as far away from in the opposite direction. Despite that being my intent, I couldn't detect any traces of sarcasm in my own voice, which I guess was a good thing. And in the end, it really couldn't hurt to check out something like a person that could talk to Pokémon in the first place. Even if it was a joke, it should have some good memories to put on the side regardless.

"Damn right, you better go check it out!" Professor Spruce asserted. I was left in the dust to wonder where she got all of her energy and enthusiasm for something like this anyway. If I didn't know better, I would have said that she has some sort of personal stake buried in this whole mess. Before I could contemplate that thought any farther, I was distracted by the analytical look the professor happened to be directing towards me. "Hey, are you managing alright, Jijri? Something seems off about you, you know?"

Huh, I was surprised it took her this long to catch on. Then again, Professor Spruce had been off gathering research when I had returned home with Wicker in tow, and we hadn't talked in any of the gaps since. That meant that the last time she had seen me was at my Championship induction ceremony. The only reason for the discrepancy was lack of interaction, which in the end gave her a much better contrast to notice the differences from.

If that wasn't true, then I was more obvious about these sorts of things than I would have liked to admit.

"Um, well…" I said, fishing around for the right words. "I guess, if anything I've been having these weird dreams lately." I hadn't meant to say that, but since the Meowth was out of the bag, there was no point in keeping it a secret. Just the look on the professor's face was enough to know she could rip the information out of me in no time whatsoever. "I dunno, I just get this weird nostalgia vibe off of them even though they're things I know I haven't done before. You and Professor Maple keep showing up and asking me all these weird questions, and when I wake up I feel like an idiot for not being able to answer them properly…" I stopped talking there. That was enough prattling for one moment of weakness.

Professor Spruce frowned a little, something she only did when in serious thought. "Well, I guess that sort of stuff happens, huh?" she offered. It was a bit lame of response, but I didn't have anything better for an idea, so I let it go. "If you want a proper opinion on that, go and find a dream interpreter in this mess of stalls. Though in my opinion, that sort of stuff's bogus…" the professor grumbled a bit before readjusting her focus. "Are you really so worried about something like a dream, though, Jijri-bozu? I thought you were better than that."

I could have mentioned everything else, the real dream that was bothering me, the sense of incompleteness, all of it. I didn't do it. When she put it that way, what was I doing worrying about something that was just my own imagination? This was a festival, dammit, and I wasn't going to ruin anyone else's time when I should be focusing on having fun instead.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said, laughing a bit. "Thanks, Professor, I needed that. I'll see you later then."

I slipped back into the crowd before she could stop me, heading back towards the food concessions areas to prevent myself from looking for a dream interpreter seriously. Even if I wasn't all that hungry, surely eating was the best answer to the problem right now.

Somehow I made it to the evening hours without getting a heart attack. No matter the amount of walking I had done heading from one area to the next while trying to distract myself from every mental occurrence that arrived, I knew for a fact that I would be seeing a few new pounds added on to my weight if I ever bothered to look at a scale again. In highly questionable and egocentric best interests, I figured that I should avoid that sort of thing for at least a few weeks.

And while it didn't make me stop thinking, the whole excursion made me feel better. Errat and Fri were too busy to hang out with, but that was the only damper on my nostalgia. The fact that I would eat roughly the same menu of food each year suddenly came to light and I experimented with some new food stands I hadn't registered while I had been scurrying around helping the planning committee. I blew too much money on being a terrible shot with darts. I even sat down and listened to the band that wanted their stand expanded and wondered what the difference in sound quality would have been if they were missing those extra seats Fri had granted them.

At the end of the day, I still had energy. The sun going down didn't mean curl up on the couch and try to sleep through the last remains of construction noise. I had no desire to do such a thing for the record, but even if I had, I would have fought it off for the chance to finally celebrate Errat's inheritance.

There were various seating areas scattered throughout the town, old recycled picnic tables and benches mixed in with newer ones that had worked their way into storage over the years. As expected, there were plenty around the food alleyways, but Fri had pulled around some strings to reserve off one of the areas for Errat's party. The Noda family stand was perched nearby, and once I helped clear the uninterested people out of the way, Errat's siblings started to work their way around the tables, setting out a dinner that only Errat and Fri's efforts could have pulled together.

"You sure haven't stopped by in a while, Jijri," a voice called out, grabbing onto my attention. Errat's mother stood on the sidelines, the first time at a festival I had seen her go without being buried up to her neck in cooking. She smiled, and I shuffled my way over to her, taking care not to knock over any of the younger kids as they worked their way towards the tables.

"Hey, Mrs. Noda," I answered, feeling as if the greeting was too informal to the woman that had served as one of three mothers for our trio of friendship. "Sorry for not stopping by I've been…" Busy wasn't the right word. Lying about it would fly with Errat's mom even less than it would do with everyone else. As courteous as ever of my awkward pause, she waited while I mentally fumbled for a response. "I've been preoccupied," I finally decided on, the closest I could get to the truth.

"So I've heard. Errat says that you've been working on finding the best way to achieve your dream, isn't that right?" She laughed in the exact same way as Errat while I blushed profusely. Not only was he bothering me with unnecessary memories, the rat was spreading rumors to his family as well! If this wasn't his party there would be no delay in my retaliation.

But that being said, I guess that was probably the best excuse I could manage for what I had been doing—that is, to say, nothing. If you got super technical about it, me being highly distracted and having an intense desire to get over it—not coming up with ideas, mind you, just wanting to—would in fact get me closer to achieving that ill-considered childhood dream, but only if you were super picky and vague about all of the details included. And while it was a borderline lie, it sure as hell sounded better than "I've been super lazy for months" did.

"Well, I can't let Errat be the only one to get what he was dreaming about," I said. "That and Fri's almost there, too. Letting them win over me isn't really something I can stand for without a fight." Just saying the words made me feel like they were true. Man, how gullible was I to go and fall for something I knew for a fact wasn't true? "I mean, just look at all this." I nodded my head in the general direction of the ever-increasing piles of food as they finished their journey from kitchen to tables. "If Errat can pull this off while still heading up the booth for the festival, surely I can throw a ball at a Pokémon enough times to convince it to stay with me."

Right?

Errat's mom nodded in appreciation before giving me an encouraging slap on the back, almost knocking me over. "Atta boy! You've already caught one legend, there's no harm in trying for another, Mr. Champion!" she said, laughing afterwards. I took some personal time to try and regain my ability to breathe. "But you're right; Errat sure did pull off something great. He even insisted I stay out of it so he could prove that he was ready for this." She let out a heavy sigh. "I forgot what it was like to not be inside the kitchen at all…"

Wow, I was floored. Errat was my best friend, and I was still this level of impressed. I had only managed to make it out the door on my journey with the entire town convincing me it was a good idea, to go out and see the world. And Errat was just the type to shout encouragements at me then heading back and locking himself up in his room for hours on end, trying to create the best possible experience he could all by himself.

And I was just patting myself on the back for only pulling off a fraction of the work Fri and Errat had put into this festival.

"I'll go and help him out!" I said, accidentally projecting the words into a shout. The natural noisiness of the festival air was the only thing that stopped me from being noticed. "Sorry to leave so suddenly Mrs. Noda, but things will go smoother if there's another pair of hands around, right? Later!" I didn't even wait for a response, but I was filled with too much self-loathing at the moment to worry about my bad manners. I sprinted into the kitchen, weaving around Errat's siblings until I found the Noda heir directing his family, all managing food with an expertise level I could never match.

Errat had control over the one section of the back side of the stand that wasn't coated in food, and across the table was a drawn out diagram of what I guessed was the layout for the upcoming part outside. The entire place oozed the smell of food, and I shoved my hands in my pockets for the sake of not stealing anything. Not only would someone like Errat notice, but there was a gathering of hard-working children that would rat me out in a second should their older brother's senses fail. I approached my best friend with caution.

"Okay, Mixie, take that main dish to this table here—Oh, hey Jijri—No, the side dishes are all over there, that's where the dessert is—How's it goin', man? Glad you came—Yeah, these two go together, see the little marker? Make sure that—Fine, fine, I get it, you know what you're doing, so just go for it—What can I do for you, Jijri?"

I had completely missed out on the parts of the conversation intended for me. No matter how many times I watched the Noda family in action, their ability to communicate in a few food-related gestures and commands to produce fantastic levels of meals I always got distracted by something else. While he waited for my answer, Errat shot off a few more commands to a few of his brothers, who both performed about faces in the direction of their newest objectives.

"Um, I just wanted to see if I could help out any but it looks like you've got things covered here…" I said, looking around. Sure enough, I felt like if I moved from my spot any, I'd just be getting in the way. Just how much space did they have back here to store up this much food? "I guess I can get out of here if I'm being a hindrance, though. Sorry for the intrusion." I tried my best to back up, only to have Errat shake his head at me.

"Come on, you know we can always use a bit of help," he said. I had just gone from feeling better about finally deciding to something useful to silly about trying to help to resigned to the fact, and back to feeling silly for not thinking my help would be needed. By this point in my life, I was slowly becoming a wreck. "How 'bout this? Most of everything is out there and good to go, but you can take that dish—the one with the silver tray—to this table here." Errat made gestures to the dish and question before pointing to the desired location on the diagram.

It took me a moment to match up my mental map of the set up outside with its related markings on the paper, but it finally clicked for me. "Got it," I said with probably way too much determination. At the very least, I was certain this was something I could do without screwing everything up. No need for my reactions to reflect badly on Errat and Fri's hard work.

Errat patted by back, and gave me a light shove in the direction of the dish in question. "Go for it, then, man, it's in your hands," he said. Even I thought he was pushing the dramatic factor a bit, but I had no room to call him out on it. I simply picked up the dish as directed and headed for the entrance. "It's good to have you back in action, Jijri."

I paused, turning around to question him. Errat was already back to discussing things with his siblings, so I let it go, focusing on the weight of the food tray in my hands.

Good to have me back, huh?

To tell the truth, I don't think I agreed with that statement much. I didn't feel like anything I had done was exactly like I was before. But then again, it wasn't really my view of things that mattered all that much right now. If I was going to feel better about myself, then I needed to have others that could look at me and help me along. So maybe when it came down to it, I should have been focusing more on how others thought of me?

Maybe I was wrong, but so what? I had been thinking about everything wrong for a while now, so any new perspective was worth a shot. I tried my best to think about it, though, even if there was a tiny chance of ever getting it right. In the people around me, the people in this town, in this region, what did they think when they saw me or heard my name?

I was the Champion, that was a good start. In order to become the Champion, you had to be strong and determined, at least that was what I had believed whenever I had admired the Champion as a kid. I was someone who would go out of their way to follow a Pokémon around the continent, for long enough that I could have Wicker at my side now. I guess that kind of blind determination made me stupid, didn't it?

But maybe being stupid was something people admired, judging by how everyone seemed to look at me. They all believed in me, kept pushing me forward. So I guess that meant that I was a person that would always push forward for my goals and what I believed in, no matter what.

Was I really that kind of person? I guess it didn't matter. Did I want to be that kind of person was a way better question anyway. And I guess I kind of did, at least a little bit. I don't know like I was treating it like some sort of profound revelation, though. When it came down to it, wanting to meet the expectations of the people that cared about you was something normal.

So in the end, I should have just stopped making excuses and just do the things I really wanted to do.

First things first, at least, I needed to make sure I took this food to the right spot. If I couldn't even pull of simple table setting, then there was no point in properly making the decision to get out there and do giant life goals at all. Honing in my focus on that, I headed for the spot in the table area and put the dish that I had been entrusted with down with a little too much force.

Right in front of Fri.

She looked like she had been sitting down for a while, doing all of her nitpicky little things she always did to set up for eating. A pair of chopsticks was on the table, perfectly parallel with the edge, and a napkin was spread across her lap already. Looking at the surrounding table settings, there were even name cards holding places for Errat and myself from being taken by anyone else.

Errat, you slimy little bastard.

Fri and I stared at each other for a moment, not doing anything else. I had been holding onto the dish too long, and what heat that was coming off of it was starting to get to my fingers. I couldn't bring myself to let go, just because I was stuck staring into Fri's wide-eyes. She looked rather cute as a Deerling caught in the headlights, though that was definitely a thought I intended to keep to myself.

"You came," Fri said, breaking into my limited concentration with just a whisper. Her expression looked like she was debating between whether to frown or to smile, and in the end she gave in and presented me with the latter. "It's a good thing you showed up, because you promised me, Jijri. Although, not going to the festival is one thing, but missing out on Errat's celebration is another matter entirely!"

Her words, on the other hand, couldn't have been in more of an opposition. I couldn't help but laugh about it. I was sitting here worrying about my friends getting too far away from me, but in the end, Fri was Fri and Errat was Errat. So that meant it would be okay for me to just be me, right? To go after the stupid little things I wanted?

"Of course I came. I did promise after all," I retorted. "Come on, Fri, you need to have a little bit of faith in me, now. I'm a bit more than hurt by the fact that you didn't think I would come through."

"Look who's talking!" Fri stood up, dropping her napkin on the ground and hitting her hands against the table. I stood up, but even with my height advantage, her glare was still terribly intimidating. In a moment of fear, I let my burst of laughter escape again. "What are you laughing at?! I'm serious!"

"I know, I know." I let myself laugh it out a bit more before taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down. "Listen, Fri, I'm sorry about how I've been acting for the past few weeks," I said, my tone coming out the serious way I had wanted it to. "You were absolutely right for yelling at me earlier. I feel like an idiot for not listening to you. So let me try and make it up to you."

"Wh-what are you—?" For some reason, I was propping myself up on the table, leaning closer to Fri. It wasn't something I was exactly focusing on at the moment.

"Let me take you on a date!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

I paused to lower my voice. "You know, Fri, a date," I said. "As in you and I go out together to the festival, you take a break from all your work, I get out of the house for once and I pay for everything." Fri only continued to stare at me. "I mean, if you want to turn me down, that's perfectly fine, too, but I thought I would just—"

"Fine." This time it was my turn to stare. I really wasn't ready to accept what I had just heard as the truth since I didn't think there was any way for it to be this easy. "Are you dense, Jijri, I'm accepting your invitation. Shouldn't you be happy or something about this?"

I really wished that Fri wouldn't worry about stuff like that. Of course I was happy. I was the happiest I had ever been, even more than when I became the Champion, more than when I had captured Wicker. I was so happy, that even the sound of Errat whistling in the background couldn't stop me from breaking out into a grin.

Aaand, a much longer chapter than usual to make up for the long gap in updates.

Thanks to She Who Loves Pineapples for your favorite and review. I'm thankful for the support!

But to be honest, I've been having a pretty stressful week, so not too much to say.

I've actually become pretty hooked on Pokemon Shuffle lately...

The next chapter will be out in two weeks.

Next time, a date, some planning, and some consideration of the future. Please look forward to it!

[POST] 031215