8: A Lesson in Healing

Akari awoke in pain. There were the aches that she still had left over from walking the ridge the other day; they seemed to have gotten even worse. But, as if that were not enough torment, her head was throbbing, and her throat felt as though it had swelled to twice its normal size.

She wondered if she should blame Volo's homemade venom, or the way he'd had to grab her scarf on the ridge the other day. But she had felt like this plenty of times before. It was how her colds always started: she would wake with a sore throat and a headache, and the rest would follow. Her fears were confirmed when she woke up a bit more. Now she could feel a tightness in her chest, and pressure behind her nose.

But without paracetamol, there wasn't much she could do. It wasn't the first time she'd come down with something in Hisui; it was just a bad time.

When Akari looked over to Volo's tent, she found him still sleeping. Too tall for the shelter he'd built, he was visible from the chest up. He was on his side, facing away from her, with his Ginkgo Guild cap pulled down over his face. Maybe he'd been craving some privacy, too, and that was all he could get.

Akari tried her best not to wake him as she crawled out of her shelter, wincing at how loudly the leaves seemed to rustle. But the sound was swallowed up in the rush of the waterfall and the river.

Blissey was sitting at the other end of the bridge. Though Akari could only see her Pokémon's back, it looked as though she may have been asleep. But Akari already knew her to be a light sleeper - she figured that came with the territory, when you were shaped like a giant egg and constantly at risk of rolling over - so she wasn't worried about leaving her there, on guard duty for the camp.

Akari picked up Volo's cloak. It was much heavier than she'd expected, and so very long. That was no surprise, since it was made to fit Volo; when he was wearing it, it would fall almost to his ankles. She carried it carefully, trying not to let it drag along the ground, trying to make sure she carried it upright so that whatever was in its large pockets would not fall out. Then she carefully draped it over the top of Volo's shelter, so that he might benefit from it, and from whatever heat it had absorbed from her during the night. She wanted him to have it right there, as soon as he woke up.

Then she went off, in search of some rustic cold remedies. Honey tea would have been nice, but there wouldn't be any honey around here. If they'd gone through Wayward Wood and the Ancient Quarry, and battled a few of the Pokémon around there, they might have found some. But there was no use thinking about that now.

Salt water.

Much less pleasant, but it would help with the sore throat.

Akari was not sure how long she'd been gone, but she'd had to go further into the ravine than she'd anticipated, and fend off a few Graveler.

When she returned, her pockets full of salt lumps and her hands with a measly amount of wood, she saw that Volo's tent was empty, and his cloak and backpack gone. Though she felt anxious at the sight, she told herself not to panic. He was an adult. If he felt safe enough to go off on his own, that was his choice.

Something else was different, too: what had been left of Akari's shelter was now a pile of broken wood. Even its thick spine had been cut into small pieces. It wasn't like she needed it anymore, but the sight of it lying in shards was distressing, at first. But it looked too deliberate. This couldn't have been a random wild Pokémon attack.

Volo must have done it.

And, as it happened, it was convenient. She needed a new fire, to boil some water, but she hadn't been able to find enough wood. As she started to gather up the broken pieces of her shelter, she thought that must have been what he'd -

"Akari!"

It was a scream on the wind, but it could only have been one person. The wood fell from her hands.

"Volo…?" Akari's throat was too sore for her to shout back; it hurt when she tried.

When she looked across the bridge, to the spot where Blissey had been sitting, it was empty.

Some movement in the sky above the forest drew Akari's eye upwards, to the sight of a winged creature. It was white, like the sky, making it difficult to see. Whatever it was, it was flying in a wide circle, high above the trees. At first, Akari couldn't be sure, but as she got closer, she thought it resembled a Togekiss. They were supposed to bring blessings and good fortune, but Akari felt neither of those things. Her tired mind raced, trying to put everything together.

Volo missing…Blissey gone…where are they? Is that Volo's Togepi, fully evolved…? He didn't tell me…?

As she ran across the bridge, her hand dove into her satchel for a Poké Ball. Anyone would do; it didn't matter. She just knew that she had to be ready, if she found Volo in some kind of danger.

Although the sun had risen, the forest was still cold and dark, except for the sharp shafts of light where the sun had managed to stab through the trees.

A Sneasel crossed Akari's path. It hadn't seen her but, since they could be hostile, and she didn't want to get held up by a longer battle, she flung her Poké Ball at the back of its head without hesitating. As the capsule opened, the resulting light took the form of Torterra.

"Use Headlong Rush!"

That might have been unnecessarily rough, and Akari did feel a flicker of regret as the Sneasel was knocked out and flung into the bushes, before it could even react. But she needed to get past, needed to find Volo…

Why would he come here, alone, after what he said about being afraid of Sneasel?

She tried to look up through the trees, to see if she could get a better look at the Togekiss that she thought she'd saw. But either it had vanished, or she just couldn't spot it from here.

"Akari!"

There it was again: much clearer this time, and closer.

If she hadn't known that it could only be Volo - there's nobody else around for miles! - Akari would not have recognised his voice. It had nothing of his usual tone, warm and smooth like the honey tea she'd been craving. Even when she'd heard him agitated, she'd never heard the acidic howl that she heard just then. He was screaming her name like it was an eternal curse.

"Volo? Where are you?"

She kept running, not paying attention to whether Torterra was keeping up or not. She just wanted to find the right direction.

Up ahead, she saw a flash of light, as though someone was tilting a mirror in a sunbeam. When she followed it, at last, there was Volo. He looked like a wild animal, with his hair slipping out of its tie, teeth bared in a grimace.

Akari saw him before he saw her.

Just as she was trying to figure out whether he looked terrified or enraged, or perhaps both, their gazes met. For just a second, she could see all the whites of his eyes, like they were glowing in the dark.

But then, almost instantly, his expression melted into one of relief, and he let out the deepest sigh she had ever heard. His knees sagged for a moment, as though he might have crumpled to the ground.

"Oh, Akari…you're there…!"

Something glinted brightly, next to his thigh. When he came closer, walking with an exhausted stumble in his step, Akari could see what it was. She took a step back.

Why did he bring that?

As soon as he saw her gaze drop, Volo moved the axe, as though he were trying to hide it behind his leg. Even if he had managed to conceal its narrow handle, the edge of its blade would still have been visible. And it was too late: she'd seen it. She'd stared at it, for several seconds.

Akari narrowed her eyes at him and took another step backwards. In the same moment, Torterra arrived at her side, and she reached out to touch his mossy shell. Her heart began to beat more insistently.

"Were you…?" She didn't even know how to finish that question. Whatever she thought of, it sounded like an insane accusation. "What were you doing, Volo?"

"Well, I…" Volo looked down at the axe, like he was finally acknowledging its presence. But at least he sounded normal again, or somewhere close to it. "You were gone when I awoke, and gone for so long, I was worried you might be in danger. And, I suppose, not having as much confidence as you in my own Pokémon…I decided that I needed something more."

Akari's face felt hot. Even now, it seemed, she was still thinking with the wrong mindset. They were out in the wilderness, surrounded by dangerous Pokémon. Akari's situation was unusual: she had a full, strong team of her own. For most people in Hisui, though, it was totally reasonable to grab a weapon if they thought there was danger. Even though weapons would be useless against many Pokémon, it must have felt safer than nothing.

The Security Corps guards were always armed, and Akari had never thought anything bad of them. She'd judged Volo much more harshly, it seemed. Merchants don't do that.

"I get it," she said. "I mean, it's only like me carrying rocks and whatever to throw at Pokémon if I run out of options, right?"

Not exactly the same, she thought, but it was the closest comparison she could draw.

Volo nodded for what seemed like a long time, his wide eyes fixed firmly on Akari's face, as though he was still trying to process the fact that she was here. Akari could still hear the frantic way he'd called out her name. It made her chest feel even tighter when she thought about it. He must have been really scared.

"I'm…" How do we get back to normal? Akari pointed back towards the camp with a shaky hand. "I was going to light a bit of a fire again. Make some tea. Have something to eat, before we go. But…I also need to find Blissey. Did you see her? She was on the bridge when I left, but - "

"No, I never saw her. If I had, I wouldn't have worried quite so much." Volo nodded - for too long, again. "I do hope she's not hurt. Where might she have gone?"

"Ugh…" Akari shook her head as they slowly began to walk back to the camp. "She does sometimes run off if there's a sick or injured Pokémon nearby. She can sense it and she gets the urge to help, I guess. But she's normally really quick! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have put her on guard duty. I just wanted to give Samurott a break, and - "

"There's no harm done." With his axe-free hand, Volo reached out to pat Akari lightly on the back. "Let's only hope that we find her."

Just before they reached the bridge, Blissey wandered into Akari's sight, coming from some nearby bushes.

Akari would never get angry with her Pokémon, but she had been feeling annoyed, until she realised that Blissey seemed upset. She looked afraid, holding her hands over her mouth and fretting. Her pouch still held an egg, suggesting that she hadn't been off healing an injured Pokémon. Or she hadn't found whatever she was looking for. That had happened before.

Akari held her by the hands and asked what was wrong, but Blissey continually looked over her shoulder, in Volo's direction.

"I think she was worried about you, Volo. Are you feeling okay? That's usually what gets her attention. She can sense sickness, or sadness…"

Volo shrugged and shook his head. "I'm perfectly well."

"Huh…well, it doesn't matter. We're all here. All safe."

She withdrew the Happiness Pokémon back into her ball.

"You don't look well, Akari," Volo said as they sat by their new fire. "Fever?"

Akari placed the back of her hand to her own forehead. She didn't feel warm. "No, I don't think so. Just a cold."

"Ah. Well, there must be some foul air around here." He sat up straighter and sniffed the wind. "Perhaps it drifted from the quarry."

"Sure. Could be."

Akari didn't have the energy to start explaining how germs worked, how they could be passed from person to person. Her cold had probably been brewing for a few days. She expected that she'd get back to the village and hear about how other people had been sick, too. Or maybe Volo would start showing some symptoms, before they were done. She'd drunk from his water flasks, once or twice.

Akari had already fixed up some salt water and let it cool. Though she felt silly doing this in front of someone else, she began to gargle with it. She couldn't do that quietly, but whenever she had to spit the water out, she would turn away and use her hand as a cover, trying to maintain just a bit of grace.

As she'd expected, when she was finished, Volo was staring at her, somewhere between disgusted and intrigued.

"It's just salt dissolved in warm water," she explained. "It helps when you have a sore throat. Don't ask me why!"

"Why not use one of Blissey's eggs? Instant cure, no?"

"Yeah, I do think about that, whenever I get sick." Akari thought about it again, but she shook her head. "I think it takes her a lot of energy to make them, and…I don't wanna make her waste them on something like this. I mean, they're her eggs, right? She should get to choose how she uses them. And, besides…I don't even know if it works like that. I've seen her healing injured Pokémon, seen her healing herself, but…not a human with a lurgy. But don't worry, it always gets better on its own. Just sucks that it had to happen today, when we've got a mountain to climb."

"Hmm, I see." Volo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Then he held out his hand, beckoning for Akari to give him her cup. "Would you like to try what I use, when I'm plagued with this sort of malady?"

"Is it alcohol, by any chance?" Though Akari hesitated, she handed the cup over.

Volo went off to the waterfall, and Akari watched as he refilled the cup. Then he refilled his own water flask, drank the entire thing, and refilled it again. Drank the entire thing. Refilled it again.

This is even worse than how he was in Wayward Cave, and on the trail.

He would drink while they were walking, too. Akari had thought he was just better at staying hydrated than she was, but every time he drank, it was like he couldn't get enough.

Just as Akari was beginning to worry, Volo came back. There was water dripping from his chin, though he didn't seem to notice. He set the cup over the fire to boil, and dropped in several red and yellow berries that Akari recognised as Figy. She frowned at the thought of drinking spicy tea, but this was an exercise in trust.

As she'd guessed, once the cup was off the fire and the water had stopped bubbling, Volo added a shot of liquor from his bottle. Before Akari could say anything in protest, he held up a finger in front of her face. She had always disliked that gesture from him, but she was used to it by now.

"You will barely taste it, Akari, and the heat will help."

Akari shielded her hands with the thick ends of her sleeves as she picked up the cup and began to sip. Straight away, she coughed.

What a liar.

She could taste the alcohol, but she forced herself to drink it. That, with the spice from the berries, seemed to release some of the pressure in her sinuses. When she coughed, she could feel a rattle in her chest, like everything was loosening. It probably meant that she'd be streaming like a waterfall by the time they got to the top of the mountain, but maybe that was better than feeling congested. Her headache, too, was starting to ease off.

We should probably get moving soon.

Akari placed a hand above her eyes, and looked up so that she could see where the sun was. It must have been the middle of the morning already, and out here, that meant a good chunk of the day had been wasted.

"The way up from here is so hard," she said. "And I don't think I can go fast today. How are we going to make it to the Summit Camp before night?"

"Perhaps we won't," Volo admitted as he sat down again. "But we shall do what we did yesterday: get as far as we can, and rest where we can.

Akari began to mentally plan the route that lay ahead, but she couldn't think of a single hospitable place to rest. Bolderoll Ravine was just like an uphill, hemmed-in version of the Celestica Trail, with the added fun of Graveler shooting around, treating its narrow straits like a pinball game. There was an Alpha Golem, too, that they would struggle to avoid.

Beyond that lay the worst part of the climb, in terms of its steepness. It was an area that was home to Bronzor and Bronzong by day, and powerful ghosts by night. There was another Alpha to contend with, too, if they ended up there after sundown.

Ugh, I think my headache's coming back already.

But Volo didn't seem worried, so Akari decided that she would try to relax for now.

Looking up at the sky had reminded her of something she'd forgotten to bring up earlier. They had both needed time to recover from the chaos of this morning.

"Hey, you never told me that you have a Togekiss now." Akari didn't have a Togekiss of her own yet, and she would have loved to see one properly - not only for herself, but for the Pokédex. Volo had said he wanted to help with that, if he could.

Volo's hair was loose now, swept forward over his shoulder. He was combing through it with his fingers, picking out any knots. As he tied it up again, he stared at Akari, like he was trying to work out whether or not she was joking. He nearly laughed, but didn't commit to it.

"I don't."

"Oh." Akari wanted to argue, but she quickly realised how ridiculous that would have been. He knows what Pokémon he has. "I…thought I saw one flying over the forest earlier, when you…when we were looking for each other. Just thought it might have been yours, since I haven't seen a wild one around here before. They're not exactly common."

"That's quite a lucky sight, you know!" Volo turned to look towards the forest and the skies above. But, of course, there was nothing to be seen now. It had gone, even before Akari had managed to find him in the woods. She had looked for it again, since then, wondering if it was nesting somewhere on the nearby cliffs. But it had not reappeared. "Hmm, I suppose we're not far from Fabled Springs. The haunt of the fairies! It could have come from there."

"Maybe...?" Akari had never seen a Togepi there, let alone its evolved forms. Only the Clefairy line. Fairies don't always like other fairies. "I wasn't feeling great. It could have been something else. I didn't even see it for very long."

"Ah, don't write it off just like that! You know, my mother thought she saw a Togetic in the sky, on the day when I was born." Volo lowered his chin and chuckled into his chest as he adjusted his ponytail. "Lucky enough for a Togetic, not quite lucky enough for a Togekiss, you might say. But my mother never liked Pokémon, anyway. She thought it was a bad omen."

A rare bit of Volo trivia, huh? "Where were you born?"

"The Mirelands."

"Do you think that's why you like Togepi? She was your first Pokémon, right?"

"Hmm…" Volo nodded, smiling. "Yes, she was. And, yes, I suppose that could be the reason!"

Akari thought it was difficult to imagine people living in the Mirelands now, let alone being born there, outside of the Diamond Clan's settlement. The rest of the land was mostly bogs and marshes. She wondered if Volo's family had lived there, or if they'd simply been passing through.

"Were your parents in the Ginkgo Guild, too?"

Volo rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "No."

Oh, the family thing. He didn't like it when I asked about this before.

Akari felt awful for removing that happy smile from his face. She was about to tell him that he didn't have to talk about his family. She would have loved to hear more about Togepi instead, if that was a more comfortable subject. She wondered where they'd met, and how he'd befriended her without using a Poké Ball. But it seemed Volo had more to say about his parents this time.

"My father was a woodsman, but he died when I was very small. I've no memories of him. My mother…" Volo hesitated, frowning and rubbing at his lips. "She did the usual things. Foraging, picking cottonsedge that the Diamond Clan would buy for their candles, and so on. Just like most women from the village, back then."

"The village…?"

"Yes. Ah, but…not your village, of course. Jubilife Village didn't exist then. I'm talking about a very old village!" Volo had seemed almost cheery for a moment, but now his smile withered away. "You won't find it anymore."

"How…?" Akari tried to ask gently, but she had to ask. She didn't understand. "How does a village just disappear...?"

"People die, or they leave, and they don't get replaced," Volo replied, very matter-of-factly. "Once the young ones start to go, because they no longer wish to raise their own children there...because they can no longer see any hope...that is the beginning of the end, for any place. There were already so few children, by the time I left."

"But all the houses and..." Akari tried to imagine what it would take to make Jubilife Village disappear with barely a trace.

"Oh, our houses weren't much to speak of. No fancy palaces, like your Galaxy Hall! Even Mistress Cogita's abode is grand, by comparison. Once all the people had gone, I imagine, everything could have been burned, or swept into the nearest bog. I don't know what became of the place. But it can't have lasted much longer. Those who remained had already long spoken of leaving Hisui. I can only assume that they did."

"But you left…to join the Ginkgo Guild?"

"Yes. Sent away to have a grand old life. Because my mother thought I'd make a decent merchant, and she twisted a poor fellow's arm to take me. For free." Volo laughed - more of an uncomfortable giggle, Akari thought. But it ended quickly, with a sigh. "Well, it's better than starving or freezing to death, isn't it? I was sent away to have…a chance at life."

"I'm sorry," Akari said automatically, not sure what else she could say. This was so far outside her experience. She felt so much sorrow for this man, it was nearly overwhelming.

"Don't be sorry! It could have been worse!" Volo laughed that same short and nervous laugh. "I could have been abandoned in the wilderness! Or thrown in the river to drown! Childhood is full of hazards!"

Akari knew what it was like to be abandoned in the wilderness; she did not want to imagine a helpless baby or a tiny child being left to that fate. I wonder if he had any siblings who - no, it was too awful to think about.

Instead, Akari returned to thinking about Volo's old village. That was still enough to make her chest ache, but not quite so horrifying.

I wonder where it was.

She remembered seeing plenty of things in the Mirelands that she hadn't understood, at the time. Foundations where buildings might have once been. Empty clearings that looked unnatural. And ruins, so many ruins, shadows of former grandeur, shadows of life...broken, left to decay, sinking into the marshes.

There were so many signs that people had once lived there, but Akari hadn't really thought about what that meant. Or, rather, what their absence meant.

The whole of Hisui is Celestica ruins.

It seemed so ignorant now, how little she'd considered it. And she wanted so desperately to say something, even if it was just to thank Volo for being so open. Instead, she tried to do what he often did: search for some positivity.

"Do you enjoy being a merchant, though?" Akari tried to brighten her tone, to speak like Volo did. "It suits you. I think your mother was right about that."

"Was she?" Volo's voice was flat. He licked his lips and blinked. "Right to send me away in the back of a wagon with some strangers, never to return?"

Even though he didn't exactly look angry, Akari felt the colour draining from her face. Why did I have to go and say that? About his mom? "N-no...! That must have been...no! I just meant..."

"I understand." Volo hid his face behind his hands. When he looked up again, his expression was mellow, softer. "Parents have to make difficult choices. And, yes, I understand what you meant."

He had not answered her question. Akari decided not to ask the same one again. She only thought it was sad, if Volo spent so much of his time pretending to be cheerful, covering up whatever dissatisfaction he felt with his life. Especially here, in Hisui, where people were defined by their tribes and by what they did. Volo of the Ginkgo Guild, everyone called him. The merchant Volo. As though that was all he was, and he could never escape it. Did he even have a family name?

"If you're not happy, couldn't you leave the Ginkgo Guild?" Akari imagined the pair of them, just as they were now, but with Volo wearing the same uniform as her. If they could find one to fit him. "You like Pokémon - you could join the Survey Corps! Then you'd get paid to be a researcher! Wouldn't you like that?"

Volo laughed, slapping his hand across his own leg as though Akari had just cracked a good joke. That hadn't been her intention, but she smiled weakly, glad to see him so amused.

"No, dear Akari," he said through his laughter. "It doesn't work like that."

It had been a naive suggestion, she realised. Everyone in Hisui seemed to be locked onto their own tracks. The old man who used to run the main village shop had given it to his son-in-law, even though he didn't like the guy. Akari imagined the shop would end up with his grandson, someday.

As travelling merchants, she'd thought that the Ginkgo Guild might have had more freedom than other people. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe the only people with freedom, here, were bandits and people like them. People who lived on the outside and didn't belong anywhere.

She blushed, too, as she realised that joining the Galaxy Team might have been the last thing that Volo wanted. But she didn't want to say anything else on the subject, in case she misspoke again and tripped over something sensitive. Something that was beyond her understanding.

"I'm sorry about this morning." Once the words had left her mouth, she was unsure whether she should have brought it up again. Volo had told her not to dwell upon past hurts. But she kept replaying it in her mind. "I just didn't want to wake you up. I thought it would be rude. And then it took me so long to find - "

"Let us not speak of it anymore, I beg you," Volo said, speaking quickly, with a wave of his hand. "For the sake of my own pride."

"Pride…?" Akari looked at him more closely, trying to read his face. "Sorry, I don't understand."

"Will you really force me to admit that I was more worried for myself than for you?"

But…it doesn't make sense.

Akari remembered now, very clearly, meeting Volo in the quarry during her first survey trip in the mountains. He'd been travelling alone, hadn't he? He always seemed to travel alone. But this morning, with no real danger in sight - other than, perhaps, the Sneasel that he feared - he had called out for her in so much panic.

But all of Akari's questions were nudged aside by the thought that she had committed some kind of social sin. She could not claim to truly understand what he meant, since the ways of Hisui were still a little strange to her. But she supposed he might have found it shameful - as an adult, a man, someone who was born and raised in this land, with deep roots - to admit that he felt safer when she was around. She, a younger girl, and a newcomer...just a visitor, really...

Or what if he was telling a generous lie, being diplomatic to spare her pride? Considering all that Volo had done for her, and the way he usually was, it seemed like a possibility.

Presumably, in this system of saving or losing face, one of them would have to take the shame. Akari didn't mind if it was her this time.

"Alright. Let's just say you were worried about me. And that was nice of you, Volo. And...it won't happen again. And now we won't talk about it anymore."

Volo looked up at her from beneath the brim of his cap. "As always, you're too kind."