Note: I'm back! Well, I finally managed to update this! Take your time in reading this though... Since this was mostly a cram of what I've been writing when I was away from my computer... I'm sorry if there was too much content. But hey! I poured my heart and soul into this because this is one of the more exciting chapters for me... Especially the battle... Arashi's POV of he battle is much more finer than Umi's I might add. Oh well, go forward and enjoy the fic!
Umi's POV:
According to Arashi, the palace apparently had a complete makeover. The both of us had stepped inside the stone tower only to be stumped in the first room.
"So you're saying that you've never seen the numerous traps and switches installed here before?" I asked, panting from almost being hit by several traps.
"N-no," he panted, "T-this isn't like the home that I used to know..."
I looked around the room. We were in a cavernous stone room with three doors. The largest was locked and it wouldn't budge at all. There were two doors that were open though, one on my left and one to Arashi's right. Oh! And did I forget to mention that there were numerous tiles that trigger traps here? Hmm... I guess I did mention that already.
"This is probably the central chamber," Arashi stated, "The locked door is probably the way to the stairs to get to the next floor... or it could be another trap."
"Problem is..." I muttered in a puzzled manner, "How do we get that thing to open?"
Arashi shrugged and sat down to think of any possible way to open the door.
I decided to check things out on my own. I swam a few paces towards the door only to accidentally trigger a trap through a swish of my tail.
Arashi immediately sensed what was going to happen and charged forward to push me away from a falling pillar, which apparently came from the ceiling. My heart thumped when I realized that if he hadn't done so sooner, I would've been squashed.
"Thanks, Arashi," I gratefully replied to Arashi.
He blushed at my response and turned away shyly. But as he turned away, he seemed to notice something.
"Umi, check this out!" he excitedly exclaimed.
I swam over to him and understood what excited him so much. I swam closer to the pillar to notice something inscribed on it.
To those who wish to pass this first test,
They must prove themselves and try to best,
The everlasting circle's two sides of its face,
Both at the same time yet in separate ways.
"Huh?" I wondered, "Two sides or faces of the circle? I don't see any circle..."
"The room..." Arashi muttered, "The whole chamber is shaped in a circle... What about its face?"
I looked around to see what that could mean. That was when an idea struck me. The two doors, the one on the left side and the one on the right side, were at exact opposite directions. Two faces... Those were the two accessible doors... Most probably, but the part about besting the two sides at the same time in separate ways puzzled me.
"Hey Arashi, I think I know what the 'two sides of a face' thing is already, it could be the two doors in the opposite sides of this circular room!" I told him, "but I don't quite get what the 'same time yet separate ways part means..."
He looked back at me and, upon realizing my deduction, smiled.
"Hmm..! That does seem to be the only thing that could be 'two sides of a face' but I really don't know about the 'same time' part," he replied, "unless we have to go through the two doors in a 'separate' way..."
He immediately stopped talking after he had said the last sentence.
"So," I answered, "we'll both take one door each?"
"NO!" he shouted back, "No! It's too risky! Besides, if something happens to you while I'm away, I would never forgive-"
"Arashi, I'll be fine... Don't worry too much," I smiled as I answered him.
"Fine," he sighed, "Just... take care of yourself, okay?"
"Okay," I answered, looking back at him as I entered the door to the left. He looked back at me and nodded as he entered the door on the right.
The door I had chosen led me to an empty room with a hole on the floor. I swam down to find a dark corridor. I couldn't see the end due to the darkness until I suddenly heard something click. I looked behind me to see that the wall was now moving forward. It had already covered the hole which I had come in from, which made me panic.
If the movement of the wall continued, I knew that I would probably be squished flat against some wall further down the corridor. In a panicked state, I swam further into the darkness until I reached a dead end.
I thought that there would be no hope left when I saw the wall but then I saw a small gap on the left side of the corridor. I slipped through with my slender body, which led me to another corridor parallel to the one which I had come from.
I looked back and found out that I could not rest yet because the wall in that corridor was also moving towards me. I probably screamed for help or something until I scolded myself for wasting time.
By that time, I had broken into a cold sweat. I swam as fast and as far as I could until I reached another wall. I saw a small spot at the rightmost corner where I would be safe from the moving wall.
When I had finally reached there, the wall had pressed against the other wall, leaving me trapped in this small spot.
I was about to cry when I heard a familiar voice.
"Umi?" Arashi's voice echoed from a hole in the right side of the small nook that I was trapped in.
I turned around and saw him stuck in a similar nook to mine albeit it was mirrored from mine.
"Arashi!" I replied, smiling.
"Phew, you're safe!" he managed to smile before turning serious again.
"Listen, Umi," he started, "I think this was what the riddle meant... We're both in the same tight spot, and both rooms have a lever beside this hole. Maybe we have to pull both at the same time!"
I looked down and saw what he was talking about. A rusty lever hung out from the wall.
"Okay, I get it," I replied, "On the count of three, we pull. One... Two... Three!"
I pulled the rusty lever down with my tail. The old machinery yielded to the force I exerted on it. A small clicking sound resounded and we heard a metallic and rusty scraping sound of a door opening somewhere. The moving wall, which had trapped us in the room was now withdrawing back to where it had come from, allowing us to go back to the main chamber.
"It Worked!" I excitedly exclaimed at Arashi.
He merely nodded a grave expression present on his face. We both worked our way back to the main chamber, where we both met up again. We looked forward to see that the locked door had disappeared. Only a pathway with stairs leading to another chamber was present.
"I don't think Ikari had the palace renovated," Arashi muttered, wearing a nervous expression on his face, "The place looks way too old to even be renovated... In fact, I'm worried that this isn't even the palace..."
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
He paused for a while then continued to speak, "Let's just say that I hope I'm wrong... I'll tell you everything later."
I decided not to pursue the topic anymore as Arashi seemed bothered by it. We continued swimming through the newly opened door until we emerged into another huge circular chamber.
The room was huge. It was a circular room with the ceiling as high us... Well, let's just say the ceiling seemed to be for a room that was three floors higher than the one Arashi and I were in. A huge obelisk sat in the center of the room. The obelisk was as high as two or three floors, which puzzled me. Arashi seemed just as puzzled as I was.
We went closer to the obelisk and, upon closer inspection, found something inscribed on it as well. All that was written there were the words (in Gyarados language): North, 5F, Middle.
"Now how does that even count as a clue?" I asked aloud, leaning against the obelisk in frustration.
When I had leaned on the obelisk, it rotated, surprising me, and as it rotated, I saw the inner rimes of the walls in the room we were in move, causing some holes to appear and some openings to close. I looked around and saw that one hole had stairs inside.
"Arashi, I think I've got it!" I called to him, "When the obelisk moves, so does the wall which causes some openings on the inner wall of the circular chamber to open and close. I think we need to use the obelisk to open and close some holes to reveal the stairs to the 5th Floor."
Arashi looked back at me.
"Are you sure?" he asked and I nodded in response, "Hmm... Fine, I'll go up there and you stay here and rotate the obelisk when I tell you so..."
"Wait, you're going in there by yourself?" I asked in a concerned manner, making a gesture that I wanted to go with him.
"Yes..." he immediately replied, thinking of an excuse to make sure I stayed behind, "Besides, I heard you panicking back at that room."
"Arashi, I'm okay-"I tried to convince him before he cut me short.
"I'll also need someone to rotate the obelisk thing while I'm in there in case there are more blocked paths," he interjected.
I couldn't find any way to counter what he said, so I had no choice but to hope that nothing would happen to him.
He swam up the staircase into the narrow rooms on the edge of the circular room. He must've gone through a lot of floors, because I kept hearing him yell to me to rotate the obelisk to change what paths were passable and impassable.
I don't know what happened, but after some time, I heard a click resound and the obelisk began to sink into the ground. As the obelisk sank, the walls around the room also began to sink, revealing the framework of the floors above. I saw Arashi looking down at me from the 5th Floor. With the walls gone, he simply swam down back to the center chamber with me.
With the walls around the chamber gone, I could see that it revealed a door with stairs leading to another chamber in the northernmost part of the room.
"You were right, Umi," Arashi smiled, "When I had reached the Fifth Floor, there were small rooms on the north, south, west, and east sides. I found three levers on the northern one so I pulled the one in the middle."
"Well, what next?" I asked.
Arashi looked at the newly opened doorway.
"We'll find out," he answered.
We both swam up the stairs and found ourselves in another circular chamber. A Gyarados stood facing a stone tablet in the center of the room.
As soon as we walked past the door, spikes sprang up like prison bars, meaning we couldn't turn back.
"I've been expecting you, " the Gyarados said, "Especially you... dear Arashi. You've certainly saved me the time of hunting for you."
"Ikari," Arashi bitterly growled.
Ikari turned around and seemed surprised of my presence.
"My, my," she coldly snarled, "Who do we have here?"
"It's none of your business!" Arashi snapped back, "What have you done to this place?"
Ikari nonchalantly swam around the room, swishing her tail back and forth.
"Why, I've decided to unearth the armory our ancestors had built us," she answered, "But it was buried directly underneath the palace."
"An armory?" Arashi questioned in confusion.
"You fool!" Ikari snarled, "You're the 'prince' of this pathetic tribe yet you have no idea of what our ancestors have built for us? What's more, you insult the royal blood just by letting her, our ultimate here!"
"HEY!" he angrily answered, "Shut up! She's here because she's the one I chose!"
Ikari froze.
"FOOL!" she angrily shouted, "You... with her? You've tainted the blood of our royal family!"
"I don't care," Arashi answered, "because I love her..."
I secretly smiled behind him.
"The Milotic are our ultimate enemies," Ikari coldly reminded, "I cannot simply allow a former member of the royal family to taint our blood. You will disgrace our whole tribe. For that, I have no choice... Prepare... to be ELIMINATED!"
As if on cue, three Sharpedo swam out of nowhere and stood in a straight line reinforcing the already locked door behind us. Technically, we were trapped. With Ikari in front and the Sharpedo closing in from the back, there was no possible escape.
"I've got your back, Arashi," I answered, my back facing against Arashi's so that I was facing the three Sharpedo behind him.
"You think you can handle it?" Arashi worriedly asked.
"Sure!" I replied, "Just concentrate on Ikari for now."
I turned to face the Sharpedo. They began to close in on me. I quickly fired a Hydro Pump at one of them, knocking him back to the wall. I got lucky, because the impact managed to knock him unconscious.
There were still two more though, so I slammed my tail to the ground to send a wave crashing to them, or in other words, I used Surf. The wave managed to strike both of them but it was abviously not very effective.
One of them had finally managed to get up close to me and struck at me with a Crunch attack. I desperately shrugged him off and fired a Hydro Pump at him. He was knocked back towards the first Sharpedo that I had used Hydro Pump on, defeating them both and causing them to faint.
There was one Sharpedo left, but unfortunately, while I was busy defeating the other two, he was readying Giga Impact.
He charged forward, his body enveloped in swirling light. I tried to dodge but it was too late. He managed to hit me, hard. The impact it had on me was intense. It was like having a really huge and heavy rock launched at you with such power. Luckily for me, Giga Impact had one setback: it rendered the user immobile for a few minutes.
I used the opportunity to take an Oran Berry that Arashi had prepared for me in my bag. Eating it healed some of my wounds. Rejuvenated, I quickly fired an Ice Beam at the Sharpedo, freezing him.
While he was frozen, I kept on hitting him with my stronger offensive attacks such as Surf and Hydro Pump until I finally defeated him.
I turned back to help Arashi. It turned out that Arashi and Ikari's battle had turned out to be more cataclysmic than the three on one battle between the Sharpedo and me.
Arashi and Ikari were stunningly fast. They swam around like blurs of blue. They exchanged attacks like Stone Edge and Waterfall, which were highly devastating now for some reason. I don't know if they had been using Dragon Dance or something but things weren't looking good, as Arashi's Stone Edge kept missing as opposed to Ikari's Waterfall.
I wanted to help Arashi, so I fired an Ice Beam straight at Ikari. She seemed to take some damage, then she angrily narrowed her eyes on me. She prepared a Waterfall attack, aiming for me. She intentionally gave Arashi time to notice the attack though.
"NO!" he yelled as he charged in front of me to block the attack.
Ikari smiled. Instead of using Waterfall, or any offensive attack for that matter, she used Attract. It seemed as if she had anticipated Arashi's actions.
Arashi suddenly stopped moving upon being struck by the pink ray. He seemed to be... charmed by Ikari...
"Heh, pathetic Milotic," she sneered, "I'll make sure your death will be a heaven out of hell! Arashi, if you truly want to win my heart, eliminate her!"
Arashi turned towards me. His facial expression seemed like he was under conflicting emoptions, probably because he was under the effect of Attract.
I tried to make him snap out of it, "Arashi! Don't listen to her, it's me- Ack!"
He didn't hesitate to charge forward in a Waterfall attack which I barely dodged.
"Hmm... I'll make sure to remember this story," Ikari cackled behind Arashi, "The story of the Milotic who was killed by the one she loved."
"Shut up!" I yelled back at her while dodging another one of Arashi's attacks.
Ikari just showed a crooked grin as she watched me helplessly dodge Arashi's attacks repetitively. I dared not to attack him but if that hjad continued, I would have ended up with a very bad future.
I suddenly thought of an idea. It was very risky but I decided that I would risk my life if it was for Arashi earlier.
Arashi charged forward with another Waterfall attack and I dodged it. This time, though, I dodged by swimming under him. I managed to wrap my body around his in the process.
"Arashi, please stop!" I cried as I softly kissed his cheek. Arashi stopped moving the moment I kissed him. I must have shocked him and snapped him out of the effects of Attract.
"I-I'm sorry, Umi," he choked in horror upon realizing what happened.
"It's okay," I smiled in reply, "Let's just go and give Ikari a piece of our minds now, shall we?"
We turned towards Ikari, who was fuming by now.
"Looks like I'll have to squish you insects myself-" Ikari stopped talking after getting hit from a well-aimed Ice Beam from me.
I looked at Arashi and he nodded. He swam forward with small rock shards swirling around him in preparation for Stone Edge.
"This is for everything you've done, Ikari!" he yelled as he launched a Stone Edge attack directly at her.
I was sure that she would be defeated. True enough, she lay down on the floor breathing heavily after being tired out from the battle.
"Come," Arashi said, "we have to bind her in ropes..."
I was about to do so when Ikari suddenly smiled.
"Don't touch me!" she roared, "Don't touch me if you still want to see your dear father, Arashi."
Arashi froze and I could tell that he was scared. He suddenly whirled around after a short silence.
"Where is he?" he calmly asked.
"Why would I tell you?" Ikari answered smugly, "I did plan of the possibility of getting defeated. So, I decided touse that father of yours as a hostage."
Arashi couldn't take what she said, "Where... is... he?"
His voice seemed more threatening when he had said that. It seemed like he was very angry now.
"Fine," Ikari coldly answered, "Step away from me and I might just tell you..."
Arashi obeyed but I noticed a sly smile that crept over Ikari's face.
"Arashi, no!" I tried to warn him but it was too late.
Ikari had swum to the other end of the room, where the stone tablet that she had been staring at before the battle was. She pressed something and the tablet moved aside, revealing an underground compartment where the body of an unconscious Gyarados lay.
"Take one more step and he gets-" Ikari wasn't able to finish her sentence as I had charged myself and knocked her to the ground, unconscious. The other Gyarados began to cough and wake up, Arashi just stood back, still gawking at everything.
"D-dad!" Arashi cried after regaining his senses.
The Gyarados had finally woken up. He saw his son swimming towards him and smiled.
"Arashi? Son, yerr back!" he weakly sniled, but suddenly frowned, "Err, Son... 'Bout Ikari..."
"Don't worry Dad," Arashi explained, "Umi and I took care of her."
"Umi?" his dad asked in confusion.
I swam up to him, ignoring the fact that he was probably unaware of what had been going on between Arashi and I.
"Um... That'd be me, sir," I answered nervously, "Pleased to meet you."
"Eh?" he answered, stunned, "Ain't you a Milotic? An' isn't there a war or somethin'?"
"She knows, Dad," Arashi explained, "But the whole war is a misunderstanding and we came to clear things up."
"Even so," his father continued, suspiciously eyeing me, "Why is she 'ere? I mean, isn't she aware 'bout the long-lived feud between our species?"
"Dad," Arashi slowly said, "I can't tell you everything now. I have to go help Umi in liberating the Milotic. I promise I'll explain everything later, but for now, please guard Ikari, I tied her up already, guard her and make sure she doesn't escape."
"Okay, Son," his father answered back, "Oh, and another thing. I'm sorry..."
"No, I'm the one who's sorry," Arashi answered.
With those last few words, he left the room with me. I knew that I would have to face the monster lusting for me then. But I smiled in the midst of that problem.
That's okay, because this time, I'm not alone. I have Arashi with me!
Arashi's POV:
The stone structure seemed like the palace, but the interior was totally... off. We had spent some time in the first room of this palace, or a lookalike of it, as it seems.
"So you're saying that you've never seen the numerous traps and switches installed here before?" Umi asked, panting after almost getting stabbed by several traps.
"N-no," I gasped for air... or oxygen underwater, "T-this isn't like the home that I used to know..."
We emerged at a cavernous room. There were three doors present in the room. A huge locked one was at the northernmost part while the other two were at the west and east, both were unlocked and accessible.
"This is probably the central chamber," I stated in an unsure manner, "The locked door probably is the way to the stairs to get to the next floor... or it could be another trap."
"Problem is..." Umi continued, "How do we get that thing to open?"
I shrugged and sat down. The place was definitely not the palace, yet something seemed quite familiar to me.
While I was thinking, Umi decided to check things out by herself. She swam to the door to examine it. In an unpredicted movement, she swished her tail, hitting a tile. A sharp sound came from the tile.
I looked up and noticed a sharp pillar directly on top of Umi starting to move.
It was another trap! I charged forward towards Umi, hoping that I could push her out of the way in time.
I managed to push her out of the way before the huge thing fell a few inches from my tail.
"Thanks, Arashi," she smiled back at me after regaining herself.
I felt quite awkward when she smiled at me and turned around to conceal it. When I turned around, however, I saw that there were some inscriptions on the pillar that had just fallen.
"Umi, check this out!" I called to her while reading.
To those who wish to pass this first test,
They must prove themselves and try to best,
The everlasting circle's two sides of its face,
Both at the same time yet in separate ways.
"Huh?" Umi muttered, "Two sides or faces of the circle? I don't see any circle..."
"The room..." I subconsciously answered back, seeing the big picture, "The whole chamber is shaped in a circle... What about its face?"
Umi turned around to see what I had proven. I went back into a deep thought; the word 'face' certainly wasn't the key... I suddenly froze, what if the key to solving this was the sole word 'separate'? I opened my mouth to speak but Umi had beat me to it.
"Hey, Arashi, I think I know what the 'two sides of a face' is already, it could be the two doors in the opposite sides of the circular room!" she excitedly told me, "but I don't quite get what the 'same time yet separate ways' part means..."
I looked at Umi and smiled at what she said.
"Hmm... That does seem to be the only thing that could be 'two sides of a face' but I really don't know about the 'same time' part," I replied, suddenly thinking it was a bad idea to share my idea, "unless we have to go through the two doors in a separate way..."
I stopped talking... I didn't want to leave Umi alone here, not in a place like this.
"So," she casually asked, "we'll both take one door each?"
"NO!" I shouted back, "No! It's too risky! Besides, if something happens to you while I'm away, I would never forgive-"
"Arashi, I'll be fine... Don't worry too much," she interjected, trying to comfort me with her smile.
"Fine," I sighed, "Just... take care of yourself, okay?"
"Okay," she replied, looking back at me as she entered the door to the left. I did the same and nodded as I entered the opposite door.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw an opening leading down to a lower floor. I swam down going to the farthest corner possible. I stopped when I had reached a small corner with a square-shaped hole on the wall and a lever. I tried to pull it but nothing happened.
I was busy thinking about the lever when I heard Umi's scream. I instantly regretted allowing her to go by herself. I tried to swim out but found that the wall had pinned me in the small corner with the lever.
I began to panic until I heard the sound of nearby movement. I looked through the hole and saw Umi on the other side, pinned down in the same as I had also been.
"Umi?" I called.
She turned around to find the source of the sound. She found the hole and looked back at me.
"Arashi!" she replied, smiling.
"Phew, you're safe!" I smiled, relieved that nothing bad had happened to her.
"Listen, Umi," I continued, "I think this was what the riddle meant... We're both in the same tight spot, and both rooms have a lever beside this hole. Maybe we have to pull both at the same time!"
She looked around in her corner until she found the lever I was talking about.
"Okay, I get it," she replied, "On the count of three, we pull. One... Two... Three!"
Ahe pulled hers and so did I. The rusty lever went all the way down unlike the first time I pulled it. A small clicking sound reverberated through the walls and I heard a metallic scraping sound, which was probably the door. The wall had also pulled back allowing a safe passage back to the circular chamber.
"It worked!" Umi excitedly expressed, to which I nodded.
I worked my way out of the musty room and out into the wide, circular chamber. Umi also did the same and we reunited in the central chamber.
"I don't think Ikari had the palace renovated," I nervously muttered, "In fact, I'm worried this isn't even the palace..."
"What do you mean?" Umi innocently inquired.
I hesitated before saying anything else.
"Let's just say that I hope I'm wrong... I'll tell you everything later," I covered up.
She understood that I didn't want to talk about that and dropped the topic. We continued to swim through the newly-opened door. That door had led us to another circular chamber.
The room was abnormally huge. The ceiling stretched three floors higher than it should have. The inward circumference of the room had a lot of holes and I could swear that I could see some stairs through one of the holes.
A huge obelisk stood in the center of the room. Umi went over to check it out so I followed her to it.
Upon closer inspection, three words were inscribed unto the obelisk: North, 5F, Middle.
"Now how does that even count as a clue?" she wondered, leaning against the obelisk while thinking.
The moment she leaned against it, the whole thing began to rotate. I saw that the holes I had seen earlier had become blocked off and revealed other openings.
"Arashi, I think I've got it!" she exclaimed, "When the obelisk moves, so does the wall, which causes some openings on the inner wall of this circular chamber to open and close. I think we need to use the obelisk to open and close some holes to reveal the stairs to the 5th Floor."
I looked back at her.
"Are you sure?" I asked
She nodded.
"Hmm... Fine, I'll go up there and you stay here and rotate the obelisk when I tell you so," I quickly replied, thinking that it was safer for her to stay there.
"Wait, you're going in there by yourself?"she asked, her eyes concerned.
I didn't want to trouble her, but I knew her safety was far more important here.
"Yes..." I instantly replied, "Besides, I heard you panicking back at that room."
"Arashi, I'm okay-" she defiantly said before I cut her off.
"I'll also need someone to rotate the obelisk thing while I'm in there in case there are more blocked paths," I interrupted her, using that as an excuse for her to say there.
She agreed to stay and I entered the hole with a staircase inside. The staircase worked in a spiral manner, as if it was circling around the circular chamber.
Sooner or later, I learned the mechanics of the way the obelisk worked. The obelisk, when rotated, rotates an internal wall which blocks certain passages and opens up new ones depending on how it is rotated.
Umi could hear me bark orders due to the wall being too thin. After some time, I finally worked my way to the destined floor.
With Umi's help, I circled the whole place and found four small rooms, each located in the northern, southern, eastern, and western parts of the room.
That was when it hit me! Or... yeah, that was when a wall Umi had been operating closed an entrance, which made me smack my face... But in a figurative manner, an idea also hit me at that moment. I worked my way back to the northern room and entered it. In it, I found three levers. I remembered the word 'middle' so I pulled down the one in between the first and third levers.
Soon enough, the wall behind me began to sink, allowing me to easily get back to where Umi was. Activating the lever must have pulled out the entire outer wall... The obelisk had also sinked into the ground.
I swam down to her.
"You were right, Umi," I smiled at her, "When I had reached the Fifth Floor, there were small rooms on the north, south, west, and east sides. I found three levers on the northern one so I pulled the one in the middle."
"Well, what next?" Umi cluelessly asked.
I looked around and noticed that a doorway that had been concealed from my sight awhile ago due to being blocked of by the outer wall. Now that the outer wall was gone, I could see it.
"We'll find out," I answered, gesturing towards the door.
We both swam through the opening and found ourselves in a third circular chamber. As soon as we walked through the doorway, spikes sprang up from the floor, preventing us from turning back.
"I've been expecting you," a familiar voice echped, "Especially you... dear Arashi. You've certainly saved me the time of hunting for you."
"Ikari," I bitterly replied.
Ikari turned around to greet me with her sneer, but she seemed surprised at the sight of Umi beside me.
"My, my," she snarled ferociously, "Who do we have here?"
"It's none of your business! What have you done to this place?" I snapped back, hoping that we wouldn't enter the topic of a forbidden relationship.
She swam around the room, eyeing both of us before answering our questions.
"Why, I've decided to unearth the armory our ancestors had built us," she coldly answered, "But it was buried directly underneath the palace."
"An armory?" I absentmindedly questioned.
"You fool!" Ikari angrily yelled, "You're the 'prince' of this pathetic tribe yet you have no idea of what our ancestors have built for us? What's more, you insult the royal blood just by letting her, our ultimate enemy here!"
"HEY!" I snapped back, forgetting that I wanted to hide my relationship with her, "Shut up! She's here because she's the one I chose!"
There, I said it just like that. It felt good to scream it out loud.
Ikari froze, her eyes turned to slits as she heard me say those words.
"FOOL!" she angrily yelled, "You... with her? You've tainted the blood of our royal family!"
"I don't care," I answered truthfully, "because I love her!"
Ikari glared back at me as if I had said a curse.
"The Milotic are our enemies," she seriously answered, "I cannot simply allow a former member of the royal family to taint our blood. You will disgrace our whole tribe. For that, I have no choice... Prepare... to be ELIMINATED!"
Three Sharpedo emerged from behind us. We were trapped. Ikari must really want me dead. Judging by the look on her face, this wasn't going to be a friendly battle... She looked as if she wanted to kill me, not just have me defeated.
Umi pressed her back against mine. She looked back at me and smiled.
"I've got your back, Arashi," she coaxed.
"You think you can handle it?" I worriedly asked her.
"Sure!" she replied, "Just concentrate on Ikari for now."
With one last glare at her, I turned back to Ikari only to be hit by a Waterfall attack.
"That's for betraying us!" Ikari scowled as she hit me.
"I didn't betray you! I followed my heart!" I yelled back as I hit her with Ice Fang.
She glared at me.
"What do you want with the armory anyway?" I asked.
"Humph!" she answered, "For the good of our tribe, I will use the secret entrance buried in the armory to lead an army of Sharpedo into the heart of the Milotic Tribe while they are still meddling with our pathetic troops. I must thank you for one small thing though; you helped me open the entrance by solving the obelisk puzzle!"
I ignored what she said and tried to knock some sense into her.
"Why?" I reasoned out, "Why must we fight them?"
Ikari readied a Dragon Dance as she heard me say that.
"Wretched prince, have you not heard of our history?" Ikari yelled in disgust, "They kicked us out of their tribe when we acted in self-defense!"
I readied a Dragon Dance too.
I answered back, "But that incident has been long forgotten-"
"Forgotten?" she viciously struck me with Waterfall, "This is why I would rule better than you! I stay loyal to our ideals! Our legacy! You would throw all that away for a girl you supposedly say you love?"
"I'm not throwing our ideals away! I'm embracing the truth and shedding the light to our legacy! I' not throwing it away," I defended, readying another Dragon Dance.
"Really? What about her? Is it really this pathetic love that makes you defend her kind?" she mocked, readying another Dragon Dance to combat mine.
"Yes!" I yelled back, only to be hit by Waterfall.
"Pathetic fool," she cruelly scolded, "Have you not learned that in this world we live in, there is no such thing as love? Your love is a false one! It is just lust, which is not even considered an emotion. True emotions are those of honor and victory or shame and defeat!"
I slammed back with a Waterfall.
"You're wrong!" I growled, "The reason you don't believe in love is because with your views, you believe in keeping up with your ideals. You've erased all evidence of a living thing in you. And since you have never given love, you will never receive it in return!"
"Fine!" she answered as she sped around, "A clash of our beliefs! May the one who speaks the truth claim victory! I will now expose to you, that you just didn't want to admit that your love for her was just a mindless instinct."
"Fine! I accept your argument!" I replied as I swam around dodging and launching attacks back at her.
Our wild battle and flurry of attacks continued on for some time. All of our attacks missing due to the intense ambition to prove each other wrong.
All of a sudden, an Ice Beam was shot out towards Ikari. Ikari seemed to take some damage, but she angrily narrowed her eyes on the new attacker. I became worried that she was going to hurt Umi.
"NO!" I yelled as I charged in front of her to take the blunt of any attack meant for Umi.
"Thought so..." Ikari muttered, "Time to exploit your weakness."
She then launched an attack which was... Attract? I was too shocked to even move.
The pink rays sedated my mind. I tried to fight the effects but Ikari merely sneered at me.
"Here it is! Accept this love that you speak of, Arashi!" Ikari hissed with delight.
The effect of Attract slowly eroded my mind. It seemed that every time I resisted, my mind would just think about Ikari. It felt like erasing my thoughts and rewriting them. I don't know what happened there but I became head over heels for Ikari that time.
Fpr the first time in my life, I noticed how beautiful she looked. I noticed how smooth and azure her skin was, her eyes seemed cuter to me at that moment. She literally glowed. Now, if you were a male Gyarados, I bet that you would've also fallen under the same spell I had fallen to.
I was in a daze, but I remembered that she told me that I could win her heart by eliminating the Milotic in front of me.
The Milotic seemed to be calling my name. For some reason, I felt that what I was doing was wrong. I felt that the Milotic was someone I knew. However, I charged forward at her.
Our battle continued and she dodged my every move in the most graceful of ways. I couldn't help thinking that she looked beautiful, but somehow my mind reasoned to me that she was just a key to unlock Ikari's heart. A key that I needed to destroy.
I found it odd that she had no intention to attack me and only dodged my attacks. I tried to make some sense of this but apparently, I came up with nothing.
I decided to take care of her once and for all with a fully charged Waterfall attack. I charged forward aiming at her but this time she did not move to dodge it. Instead, she swam under me and wrapped her long body in spirals around mine. I must have stopped the attack in shock because I remembered suddenly being in a daze.
"Arashi, please stop!" she cried as she kissed me.
I opened my eyes and saw Umi. I remembered what I had done, how I tried to hurt her. I just choked back my tears when I realized what I had done.
"I-I'm sorry, Umi," I apologized, daring not to look at her in the face.
"It's okay," she smiled sweetly, "Let's just go and give Ikari a piece of our minds now, shall we?"
Ikari was busy cursing and fuming. I wanted to make her pay so badly.
She growled while preparing an attack, "Looks like I'll have to squish you insects myself-"
She never got to finish her sentence or execute her attack as Umi immediately shot an Ice Beam. I heard Umi trying to hide a giggle.
She looked back at me and nodded.
"This is for everything you've done, Ikari!" I angrily yelled as I fired the strongest Stone Edge I could muster.
The rocks shattered through the ice and pierced Ikari, knocking her down.
"Come," I told Umi, "we have to bind her in ropes..."
Umi went to do so before Ikari lifted her head and grinned sinisterly.
"Don't touch me!" she threatened, "Don't touch me if you still want to see your dear father, Arashi."
I suddenly became silent, which made Umi hesitate to tie her up.
"Where is he?" I calmly asked her.
"Why would I tell you?" Ikari shot back, "I did plan of the possibility of getting defeated. So, I decided to use that father of yours as a hostage."
"Where... is... he?" I persisted, my voice now laced with venom.
Ikari seemed to know that I was finally reaching my boiling point. She pondered for a while before opening her mouth to speak.
"Fine," she answered, "Step away from me and I might just tell you..."
I obeyed. However, Umi must've seen through her wiles.
"Arashi, no!" she cried, charging forward to Ikari.
Ikari swam towards a stone tablet and took out my father from him. She held him up with her tail threateningly.
"Take one more step and he gets-" Ikari growled, before being pounced upon by Umi, probably saving my Dad from Ikari.
It all happened so quickly I just stood there, looking as stupid as possible with my mouth hanging wide open. I quickly shook it off and swam to my father though.
"D-dad!" I cried.
Dad soon woke up upon hearing my cry. He opened his eyes and turned around to face me.
"Arashi? Son, yerr back!" he smiled, "Err, Son... 'Bout Ikari..."
"Don't worry, Dad, " I explained to him, "Umi and I took care of her."
"Umi?" he asked.
"Umi swam up to him in recognition.
"Um... That'd be me, sir," she nervously answered his question, "Pleased to meet you."
"Eh?" Dad choked, "Ain't you a Milotic? An' isn't there a war or somethin'?"
I stepped in to explain, "She knows, Dad, but the whole war is a misunderstanding and we came here to clear things up."
"Even so," Dad replied, eyeing Umi nervously, "Why is she here? I mean, isn't she aware 'bout the long-lived feud between our species?"
"Dad," I answered, "I can't tell you everything now. I have to go help Umi in liberating the Milotic. I promise I'll explain everything later, but for now, please guard Ikari. I tied her up already, guard her and make sure she doesn't escape."
He looked at me with doubt in his eyes. He slowly closed both of his eyes and continued to speak to me.
"Okay, Son," he answered, "Oh, and another thing, I'm sorry..."
I shifted my weight uneasily and looked at Umi guiltily. I knew that my relationship with her was a forbidden one.
"No, I'm the one who's sorry," I answered, my eyes not meeting his as I swam away.
Umi and I soon set out for the Milotic Tribe. However, my heart was now filled with doubt. Even if we would win... Would my love with Umi... come true..?
Note: Is it me, or do I just keep imagining Dusknoir's and Darkrai's PMD battle theme during Ikari's battle? Oh well, I hope this makes up for the time I was gone. For those who are waiting for "What A Thief Can't Steal", don't worry... It'll be updated soon! Hopefully before I take my Christmas vacation to Switzerland though... Please read and review now... I gotta go and collapse in bed now from typing up all these... Zzzzzzzzzz...