10: A Lesson in Fear
It started to shower before they had reached the top of the hill.
At first, it seemed like a light rain, and Akari thought it matched her sombre mood. But soon it had thickened into clumps of sleet. They collected in her hair, and in the folds of her clothes. She could feel herself getting weighed down, as the snow began to test whatever waterproofing her uniform had. She couldn't shake it off quickly enough. Once it had started soaking through to her skin, it wasn't long before she was shivering violently.
The path became too slippery as the snow built up. By the end, they had to resort to climbing the terraces, sometimes crawling between the gravestones on hands and knees. Akari felt nauseous, wondering if she was committing an act of desecration, but Volo was doing just the same. Even his sturdy boots didn't have enough grip.
He was so far ahead now. As Akari looked up at him, feeling despondent, he stopped and turned around. His cloak was billowing in the wind as he raised his arm to wave at her.
"We're almost there! Hurry up! We can make it before sundown!"
He sounded like nothing more than an echo; the wind seemed to sweep his voice away.
"Volo, wait…! Please!" But she could not make herself loud enough.
Akari's Samurott skidded around them in a state of chaos, trying to protect both humans, despite the distance between them. He fought off wild Bronzong for as long as he could, until he returned to his trainer's side and collapsed beside her.
If she'd been more ruthless, she could have just withdrawn him and sent someone else out to be their protection for the rest of the way, but Samurott was the best at withstanding this cold, except for…
Maybe it's time for Heatran.
Even though it was a very different Pokémon to Cresselia, something about the battle with the Alpha Golem earlier had made Akari wary. She hadn't been fully in control of Cresselia's outpouring of psychic energy; a raging inferno would have been even worse.
I dunno, maybe it would be worth it for the heat. No, that was not a rational thought. That was the cold and sickness talking.
No. It'll have to be Samurott.
It was quicker to just use one of her own items now, even though that wasn't what she and Volo had agreed. He was too far away, and she couldn't call him. Akari's hands were numb, and fatigue made her clumsy as she tried to get the top off the bottle and tip the contents into the corner of her exhausted Pokémon's mouth.
"I'm so sorry, buddy. I know you're tired. I'm tired, too. But we're almost there."
Akari remembered the moment on the ridge, the other day, when she'd first seen the flags of the Mountain Camp in the distance. She remembered the immense relief of getting there, after she'd nearly fallen. But she was so exhausted now, the sight of the flags at the Summit Camp easily won out.
She had only stayed at the Summit Camp a few times. With the dubious honour of being the most elevated Survey Corps camp in the whole of Hisui, it lay round about Mount Coronet's permanent snow line, give or take, depending on the time of year. It was plagued by snow that rarely melted, harsh winds that made it difficult to keep a fire going for very long, and the occasional blizzard.
Since this was a large and open plateau, they had tried to tuck the camp into an alcove, next to Moonview Arena, so that it might have some shelter. It didn't do much good. Had it not been for recent events, Akari was sure that no sensible person would have set up a camp here. But tonight, she was incredibly grateful for it.
By now, the only light was a faint remnant of sunset. The sky still held a glow, an ombre of reds and purples, especially near the horizon. But soon it would be gone. The full moon and the stars were already waiting to take its place.
Coughing and shivering, Akari staggered towards the nearest tent, almost falling into it as she tried to brush the snowdrift from its sloping back.
"You shouldn't do that, you know," Volo said as he passed her. "Snow is very insulating. Helps to keep the wind out, which keeps the tent warm."
Akari was really not in the mood for learning right now, but she didn't want to start a discussion about it. Her whole body was racked with pain. Though she knew there was a lot more to be done before they could rest, she couldn't face it. She only wanted to curl up and sleep. As she began to open her tent, she was swaying on the spot, her eyes desperate to close.
"Akari, what are you doing?" When she was slow to respond, Volo whistled to get her attention. "We need a fire to dry off. And something to eat."
The girl put a hand over her stomach as it growled loudly in agreement with him. Shut up, you traitor. "What are we even supposed to eat up here? There's nothing!"
She was so hungry, she would have loved some of Volo's flavourless mochi right now. Taste didn't matter. He could have seasoned them with liquor, for all she cared. She only needed something to stop her stomach from cramping.
She thought she'd found sootfoot roots somewhere around here before, but she couldn't remember exactly where. Wherever it was, it wasn't anywhere on this stretch of ground, and that meant it was probably too far away for them to go and make it back before dark. Akari wasn't sure that she could have gone very far at all, in her current state, regardless of the time of day.
She gazed miserably at Volo's back, watching as he set his bag down inside the other tent and dug out his axe. In case they couldn't find enough loose firewood, she guessed. She wanted to ask him if there was any chance he could go find that sootfoot root - he could take one of her Pokémon, if he wanted - and make some mochi. Maybe he could show her how; she would try to stay awake and pay attention.
But she couldn't bring herself to say it. She felt like she'd be asking him to wait on her, like a servant. Hisui had made her too independent, or perhaps just too self-conscious about being a burden to anyone.
"You can eat Bugwort," Volo said as they set off. "They're medicinal, too."
His words were clipped and tense, and he was avoiding eye contact. It wasn't like him, Akari thought. His restless energy seemed to have evolved into impatience, like he no longer had time for his usual niceties. Akari could only assume he was trying to get everything done before night set in, and she supposed that made sense.
Volo led the way, striding quickly through the snow, following a line of columns along the edge of the plateau. Akari imagined that this must have been a grand site, in its day. The Survey Corps maps called it the Sacred Plaza, and she wondered if this might be a case of them getting something right. But she was too tired to ask about it now. Maybe in the morning.
"Here." Along the way, Volo pointed out the large purple-flowered weeds that grew amongst the ruins. "Bugwort."
Akari had only used Bugwort occasionally, for crafting non-edible things, but now she bent down and picked one. She pulled off a leaf and put it in her mouth, but as soon as she began to chew, the taste was so bitter that she had to spit it out. Volo could think she was being a wimp, if he wanted. If that was the only thing to eat around here, it would be better to go hungry.
But Volo either didn't notice, or he didn't care. Without any explanation, he had veered off from their path, making a beeline for a large broken statue that lay in the middle of the plaza.
Is he seriously going to look at that thing right now? When it's getting dark?
"Volo? I thought we needed firewood! The trees are this way!"
Akari reluctantly followed, thinking that if Volo wanted to go exploring instead of foraging, she'd happily take that axe out of his hands and get the wood herself. Anything that might have allowed her to rest sooner.
"Do you know what this is?" Volo asked as she caught up with him beside the statue.
It was not the first time Akari had seen it, but she had never paid much attention to it, because there was so little left to see.
This was not like the headless Clefable or the well-preserved Probopass, back at Heavenward Lookout, where their journey had started. This was little more than a pedestal, and several stumps that could have been feet. If they were, Akari imagined something insectoid, yet far too large to be any Bug-type Pokémon that she'd ever seen. But, really, she was clutching at thin air, and not in the mood for guessing games.
Even the statue's base was in poor shape, with a huge crack splitting it in half. This did not look like any ordinary weathering, or succumbing to time. It must have been either the work of determined human hands, or a much more violent force of nature. A lightning strike, maybe? An earthquake?
"No," she said, "it's too broken to tell."
"But use a bit of deduction, Akari!" Volo turned around, pointing with the handle of his axe to the other end of the plateau, where the land dropped away. "What lies in the vast ruins down there? Two more statues, both in much better condition than this one. You should know them by now. You have had close encounters with those very Pokémon, those deities. You even captured them, as I recall."
"Right." Dialga and Palkia. Despite the epic subject matter, Akari fought back a yawn. Do we really have to do this now?
"And yet, here is another, even closer to the highest and most sacred point in Hisui. Closer to the Temple of Sinnoh than even Dialga and Palkia." He was speaking quickly, and more loudly than usual. Akari had seen him energised by ruins before, but not like this. Or maybe she was just too tired, by contrast, to join him in his enthusiasm. "Do you understand? Statues are not built or placed by accident. How could they be, with the amount of toil they require? Everything has meaning. So…?"
"Are you saying…?" Akari rubbed her eyes, for the sake of taking another look at the shattered lump of rock in front of them. "This statue was Arceus...?"
Arceus is a giant bug?
"That is what I thought. For quite some time. And it puzzled me!" Volo wrapped the end of his cloak sleeve around his free hand and began to brush snow away from the statue's surface. Akari wasn't sure why, since it didn't make the thing any more recognisable. "Who would destroy a statue of the All-Encompassing Deity? It is quite clearly destroyed, is it not?"
"I guess."
"But then it came to me! The truth! A long-forgotten truth that nobody else knows!" Volo laughed as he continued to wipe away the snow, shaking it off his cloak sleeve as he went along.. "I dare say, not even Mistress Cogita knows. Or if she does, she kept it from me all this time. Like the plate! Like everything she knew about the plates! How many times did I ask her, and yet she feigned ignorance? That is, until you arrived. Oh, she can be good at hiding things, when she wants to..."
Akari wrapped her arms around her stomach, not to silence its grumbling this time, but because Volo's words had made her feel uneasy. In contrast to his earlier impatience, now he seemed as though he wanted to spend the whole night here, like this broken statue had been the very thing he'd been rushing to see. Akari knew that ruins sparked his interest, but there was something about him that seemed...off.
"It's already dark," she said. "We should get stuff for the fire and go back."
"No, stay awhile!" As he saw her beginning to step away, Volo made an eager beckoning motion with his arm. "I have more to tell you, Akari. Things of great importance."
"Can we do this tomorrow? The statue's been here for hundreds of years, right? It's not gonna disappear overnight. And won't it be easier to look at it in the daylight?"
Volo closed his eyes and sighed through his nose, clearly annoyed that she wasn't cooperating, but Akari was too tired to care. That was the price they had to pay, both of them, for being tied to each other like this. If she had wanted to rely on the Noble Pokémon, she should have come here alone. If Volo wanted to spend a snowy night staring at some rocks, risking hypothermia, he should have come alone.
He wavered, glancing from the statue to Akari and back again. Just as Akari was about to give up and leave him, he began to follow her.
"Very well," he said at last, his tone short and tense like it had been before. "We will finish this tomorrow. Let's go and do some gathering."
They returned to the plaza's edge, this time venturing beyond the line of columns, to an area with some fir trees. Though they went together, they drifted apart as they searched for whatever they could find.
Somewhere behind her, Akari heard the thwack of branches being felled. It was an angry sound. Meanwhile, she tried - mostly in vain - to find something useful. At least it was not snowing so heavily right now, but in the darkness and with the ground covered, finding fallen wood was nearly impossible, except for when she tripped over some. That happened enough times to grant her a small collection.
The only edible things she found - other than more bitter Bugwort - were Oran berries. With no discernible flavour, they were her least favourite. But still better than nothing, and better than Bugwort.
They returned to the camp, Volo with his arms full of wood which he threw into the firepit. He was so haphazard about it, some of the wood either fell or bounced out of place; when that happened, he kicked it back into the pit. Akari dropped in the few pieces she had found, with a bit more care. But Volo took them out again, almost immediately, and threw them to one side.
"Damp wood," was all he said.
Akari blushed. In her attempt to make up for that rookie error, she extended her arm towards Volo, her hand cupped and filled with Oran berries. He took one glance and shook his head.
"Not hungry. Let's sort out the fire. Then you can rest."
Volo was distracted, it seemed, by the ancient columns that lay within touching distance of the camp. The one furthest away was still standing, more or less, but the other had not survived quite as well. Its pieces were a pile of rubble, slumped against its sibling. Based on their position, and the presence of other pillars in the same area, Akari guessed that there might have been more, before they put the camp here.
On the other side of the camp lay Moonview Arena, which was much better preserved. Maybe that was only because the Diamond Clan had taken it over and placed it under a Warden's care. Regardless of what Akari thought of Melli as a person, he took his duties seriously.
Every few minutes, Volo would glance over his shoulder at the columns and shake his head. His hands moved the firewood with fierceness. Akari decided to sit back and leave him to it, worried that he might accidentally hit or trap her fingers if she kept trying to help.
Volo didn't seem to mind; he was too preoccupied. After a long and uncomfortable silence, he gave voice to the feelings that were written in lines all over his face.
"Incredible, isn't it? First Heavenward Lookout, now this. Your Galaxy Team certainly has a knack for locations."
They could have been words of praise, on paper, but his icy tone made it clear they were not.
I didn't build it.
But Akari felt like it had been built for her. She was the one who'd come here to calm Lord Electrode, and because of the situation with Melli, it had taken a bit more time than usual before she could negotiate her way to the Noble Pokémon with the balms that she needed. She had needed a base.
She still thought that should not make her responsible for where they had decided to place the camp, and whatever lack of respect they'd had for the nearby ruins. But now she felt like it did fall on her shoulders, like her first order of business back at the village should be telling them to move it.
"Well, you don't have to sleep here if it bothers you so much." She immediately regretted that. "I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter. I understand. You're not well."
Again, on paper, they could have been more of Volo's soothing words, intended to put her at ease. But they were sharp as knives, and he would not look at her.
Akari began to fear that she was not just a speck in his firing line, and that the camp's location was not just the touchpaper for his anger - but, rather, that his mood was directed at her. She tried to think about what she might have done to cause it, but she could think of nothing obvious, other than the things she'd thought were resolved already.
She was too tired to start going over everything; she knew that it would only make her feel more anxious. If she allowed herself, she could easily fall into thinking that everything was her fault, or that her mere existence was enough to annoy someone, given long enough. She wasn't going to do that. Not tonight.
People have a right to their feelings.
Even Volo can't be cheerful all the time.
Sometimes people are just angry, or tired, and it's not always about you.
It almost seemed as though arriving here had affected the merchant's mood. If so, Akari thought that was a shame, since they had nearly reached the end of their journey. The best part of their journey. Tomorrow, they could take all day to explore a huge stretch of ruins. Or Volo could go and stare at that broken statue, to his heart's content, if that was all he wanted to do.
If they could just sort out their food situation, maybe find the nearest lake for Samurott to catch a haul of fish, find those sootfoot roots that Akari was sure lay nearby…then they could stay at the Summit Camp for as long as they wanted.
Volo would be happy about all of that, wouldn't he? Even if they didn't find all the answers that would lead them to Arceus, wasn't this what he loved the most? Wasn't this what he'd been looking forward to, and racing towards, all this time?
Why not just ask him what's wrong?
As she watched him, Akari knew why.
He was not smiling. Of course, she couldn't expect him to smile constantly, but right now, his face was so stern that she couldn't even recall what his smile looked like. His stare was so intense. Every move he made was laden with an unpleasant energy that Akari couldn't quite pinpoint. Aggression, maybe…?
She had never imagined that Volo could be a violent person. Even now, the thought seemed ridiculous. But as she watched him, she began to feel like there was something trembling under his skin. If not aggression, and not violence, then some kind of chaos. She couldn't describe it; she could only sense it.
Like how you can sense an Alpha when it's nearby. And even before you know what an Alpha is, something is telling you to run.
For the first time, Akari thought about where she was. Close to the summit of the highest mountain in Hisui. One of the most remote points in a land that was already so vast and lonely. In other parts of Hisui, at least there was the chance of seeing another human being in the distance: a clan member, depending on the territory, or the slow roll of a Ginkgo Guild wagon…
The few people who cared about her knew, in the vaguest sense, where she was. She had told them where she was going. But they couldn't reach her. This was not like a survey expedition, with Professor Laventon and a few people from the Security Corps waiting for her at one of these camps.
This time, she was alone.
No - not alone. She might have felt safer, if she were alone.
Instead, she was with just one person. A man she barely knew. For all his friendliness and familiarity, for all his generosity and warmth, all he'd done to help…she didn't know Volo.
It wasn't that she was scared of him. After everything she'd been through, it seemed ridiculous to be scared of a person. She was just wondering, that's all. Wondering why her hesitation at the Ancient Retreat had led to a 'yes' instead of a 'no'. Had she not thought about the possible implications, of being in the middle of nowhere with just one person, and nobody else around for miles?
Unless…
"You know what…?" Akari swallowed hard. She was trying to sound light and airy, but suddenly there was too much saliva in her mouth. "While you're doing that, I might just go see if Melli's there."
Saying those words made her realise that something must have changed, since Wayward Cave. She had been joking, then, about dropping in on the Diamond Clan Warden to annoy him. But that would have been petty. Akari didn't like to think of herself as being petty, so in all likelihood, she wouldn't have done it. Not in that spirit.
She didn't want to see Melli. But she also hoped he was there.
She began to consider what she might say.
'I need another adult, because the one I came here with is acting weird, and I'm oversensitive'?
'I'm here with someone but he's being kinda moody, for some reason. But instead of asking him what's wrong, I've come to talk to you instead, even though I already know you hate me'?
Or should she just say hello, and try to pretend that they were friends, like there was no bad blood between them at all?
It would have been different with someone like Professor Laventon. If she ever went to him and said something bizarre, he'd at least wonder why. He'd ask if she was okay. But Laventon wasn't here. He was safe and warm, she hoped, back at the village. Akari could only imagine that Melli would laugh in her face, no matter what she said.
Volo stood up and dusted off his hands. "Then I shall come with you."
Oh. Guess I won't be saying anything, then.
Akari was thankful for her scarf: she quickly pulled it up to her nose, so that it was hiding half of her face.
As she set off for the arena, she hoped that Volo might not follow, if she gave him no further invitation. But he did. Not racing ahead, like he often would. Not trailing behind. He was right by her side, closer than he needed to be.
Well...maybe he just doesn't want us to get lost in the dark.
But these self-reassurances weren't serving their purpose anymore. She didn't believe herself.
The Diamond Clan's flags were raised in front of the arena's entrance, and Akari struggled to remember if that meant anything. The Survey Corps kept their flags up, too, regardless of whether someone was staying at a camp or not. But there was a chance that Melli could have been sheltering inside the arena - maybe the snow had kept him here - so Akari continued past the flags, past the entrance, into the column-lined rotunda.
Everything was still and silent. There were no signs of life, not even a buzz to indicate that some Voltorb were hanging around in the trees.
"Looks like he's not here." Volo's arm came up to hover behind Akari's shoulders, like he was intending to turn her around and guide her out of the arena. Suddenly, that was his voice again, low and sweet. "Well, I think that's for the best. Can't say I'm sorry."
It's like he's glad we're alone.
Akari shrank away from him. "Why would you say that?"
"Tch! Akari, you spoke nothing but ill of the man." Even with these negative words, Volo still spoke like honey, like someone trying to teach a child a gentle lesson. "You hardly sold him to me as a fellow I should like to meet. Why should I - or you - want to waste our precious time on someone who sounds so…meddlesome? So arrogant...? Or was I mistaken? Is that not the picture you intended to paint?"
Akari took a breath to reply, then realised that she didn't know what to say. Was she really getting called out for what she'd said about Melli? Whatever was happening, she felt as small as a baby Budew.
Stupid girl gets told off for stupid gossip.
That must have been what Volo thought of her now, even though she was sure that he enjoyed a good gossip, too.
Everything I said was true, she wanted to say. But she decided to let it go. It didn't matter. Melli wasn't there.
Akari was not stargazing tonight. She could not allow her attention to drift that far away. She sat by the fire, knees hugged into her chest. It was partly for warmth, and partly so that she could hide her face behind her knees if she needed to.
She stole quick glances at Volo, whenever she felt that he wasn't looking. It was a matter of timing, catching him when he was busy. Another Pokeshi doll. He moved the knife over the wood so quickly, Akari couldn't tell whether it was just skill and confidence, or another manifestation of whatever unsettling energy had seized him.
He was still not smiling. His stare was still intense, but now it was even worse. Before, Akari had thought it was the lack of light that had expanded his pupils into black holes. But now the fire was lit, and Volo's face turned towards it, but his eyes still looked like that. Such a small detail, and hardly beyond his own control, but it didn't seem right.
Now and again, he would stop carving for the sake of rubbing at his lips. They looked painfully dry; even at this distance, Akari could see the cracks.
While Akari was staring at his lips, they moved, making her jump.
"What if I told you that I have visions?" Volo spoke as if she was not there, not even looking up from his task. The words rushed out of his mouth in a jumble.
Akari pressed her own lips together. She didn't like what she was hearing, but she had to remember where she was, and how she'd gotten here. The experiences that she'd had, too, since she'd arrived. When the clan leaders had said they heard the voices of their respective Mighty Sinnoh, she hadn't thought they were delusional.
So, she would give Volo the benefit of the doubt, though that benefit was wearing thin.
"What sort of visions?"
Still carving, Volo released one of the fingers on his knife, and used it to point in the direction of Moonview Arena. "I've been there before, you know. It was empty, so…I took shelter there, the first time I came to explore the ruins. And, when I slept, I had a vision. I had a vision of my future, Akari. Of all the great things that I'll do, once I have the blessings of the All-Encompassing Deity. The glory that I'll restore to this land. The wrongs that I shall correct. I saw it all. It was…wonderful."
Akari lowered her head to hide her expression. Nothing wrong with some healthy self-esteem, of course. But Volo seemed to have swung so dramatically to the other end of the scale.
Something's not right.
"So, you were asleep…?" Akari's heart was beating so loudly, she could hear it in her head. "Was it like a dream?"
She was about to tell Volo that there was a rational - well, sort of rational - explanation. A reason why someone might have vivid dreams, sleeping in Moonview Arena.
That was Cresselia's old haunt. Akari supposed it might all stop, now that she'd caught the Lunar Pokémon. But if Volo had camped in Cresselia's lair in the past, perhaps she had visited him with a happy dream. Akari thought he might have liked to know that. In some small way, it would mean that he'd already been blessed by one of the myths he loved so much, even if it wasn't the one at the top of his list.
But she couldn't get a word in; Volo was talking too quickly. He did that, sometimes, when he got excited. But not like this, like his tongue couldn't keep up with his thoughts. He was usually so well-spoken. Articulate, but careful, in a way that people sometimes were, when they had to be professionally multilingual, like the Ginkgo Guild's merchants. But now he was dropping syllables, crashing words together, in his hurry to spit them out.
"A dream is not a vision, though, is it? Surely you must know."
"Me? I don't…I don't think I've ever had a vision." Akari tried not to think about the images that had flashed through her mind in the ravine.
"Oh, you haven't?" Volo brought the Pokeshi doll closer to his face, like he was trying to refine its details. Those details, apparently, required him to jab the point of the knife into the doll's head and twist it, several times. Akari was sure he hadn't done that before, with his previous creations. "That's interesting. I thought you might have."
Akari attempted a gentle laugh, but it sounded more like a whimper. "Not sure why you'd think that. I'm not special enough to have visions."
"Oh, but you are." Somehow, it didn't sound like praise this time. More like a warning. "Look at everything you've done. The Noble Pokémon, the Lake Guardians...Dialga…Palkia…Cresselia and the rest…and all without…a hint of fear."
Volo stuck the knife into the icy ground beside him and set the Pokeshi doll down by the fire. This time, he put it close enough that the wooden surface of its face began to tan. It would burn, eventually, if he left it there. But not quickly enough to prevent Akari from shivering at the sight of its face.
Is he just bad at carving, or is he doing this on purpose?
It had his black hole eyes, large holes roughly stabbed and bored deep into the wood, and a slash-like grin, as though his knife had slipped while creating it.
"That's not true, Volo," Akari replied, forcing herself to look away from that wooden abomination. I feel like it's staring at me. "I do get scared, just like anyone else."
"Of what?" It was not a question, but a demand.
Akari bit the inside of her lip. She didn't consider herself to be a good liar, so she didn't want to make something up. But she didn't feel safe enough to tell Volo that, actually, he was scaring her a little, right now. So, she told him a truth that she was sure she'd already told him, once or twice.
"I'm scared that I won't get to go home."
She was talking about her own time, right? Surely she wasn't afraid that she would never make it off this mountain? Or that she'd never see the village gates again? If she was afraid of that, why was she still sitting there? Why not run right now?
"And why does that scare you so? After all you've done, why is that the thing that scares you?"
"Because…" Akari blinked back tears. "I know it's out of my control."
"Listen! This is just my belief…" Volo leaned forwards. "I think most things are beyond our control. As you've seen for yourself, there are higher powers at work here, Akari. Sometimes, if you find a way to open your mind…and if you listen, if you really focus…you might get some idea of what they require of you. And then you may proceed with more surety, perhaps, feeling that you're on the right path. At some point, you may even feel that you're in control. But are you, really?"
Akari nodded robotically. Even though the fire still separated them, she pulled herself back, drawing her knees even closer to her chest.
She could feel the shape of her phone in her pocket. In this position, it was pressed against her inner arm. If only she could use it to contact someone.
Of course, that was impossible, in a time when telephone signal didn't even exist. But, even before now, she had gotten so desperate that she had tried. More than once. A series of undelivered messages - questions, mostly - were lined up, to an unknown sender. To her knowledge, they hadn't been read by any eyes but her own.
"Yes, that is what I believe," Volo continued. "We are just players in stories that have been written for us. Players on a stage, perhaps, is a better way of looking at it. The Almighty One, the All-Encompassing Deity…it watches us. It watches us play out the stories that it has written."
Well, that seems a bit pointless, Akari thought. Arceus must be very bored.
"When you had the dr-…I mean, the vision, in Moonview Arena…is that what you saw?" she asked. "Your story?"
"Not just mine." Volo sat back with a knowing smile.
Akari nodded and lowered her gaze, trying to look contemplative and respectful, but without taking the bait. She wasn't going to do that. Even if Volo was about to tell her that he saw Arceus sending her back to her own time, he wasn't exactly giving her confidence in anything he was saying right now.
But it seemed that she'd been wrong. Volo carried on, but it was nothing about her.
"Giratina. I came to know it."
"What's…Giratina?"
"The statue." Volo nodded in its direction, staring as though he could see it, even from this far away, even in the darkness. He had dropped into a whisper, too, as though he were afraid it might hear him. "That is Giratina. Long forgotten. Shunned by its own creator, blamed for disaster, its statue destroyed by those who once revered it…but it seeks no worship. I offered worship, when I learned of its story...but that is not what Giratina seeks."
Akari was only half-listening, waiting for a lull in Volo's speech. She was already sitting at the entrance to her tent. All she had to do was feign a yawn and stretch.
"Oh…Volo, I'm so tired. I think I should have been asleep an hour ago. I really want to hear more, but…it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm going to bed."
She didn't think it would be that easy. She expected Volo to start an argument, snap at her for leaving in the middle of his tale, try to persuade her to stay up. If he did, she thought, she would have to find a way to be diplomatic and graceful. Just like he usually was.
But Volo just nodded vacantly. "Goodnight, then."
Oh. Okay.
"Goodnight, Volo." Akari gave him one last concerned glance. "I really hope you get some good sleep."
She ducked under her tent flap and out of sight. As it fell, she caught a glimpse of Volo, still staring off into the distance, rubbing at his dry lips. Would she even be able to sleep while he was sitting out there, in that strange mood? Despite how exhausted she was, she knew it was unlikely.
Now that she was hidden, even if it was only behind a sheet of canvas, Akari clamped her hands over her mouth, trying to quiet her own breathing. She wished that these tents were bigger, or that she had a Pokémon that was smaller. Then she might have felt more protected. She kept wondering what she'd do, whether she'd be able to react fast enough, if her tent was suddenly ripped open, and Volo was standing over her, his knife glinting in his hand -
You're taking this way too far. He's not even being threatening; he's just being weird.
Maybe he's tired. Or he drank too much of his own moonshine.
Tomorrow, she hoped, this would all be forgotten. The sun would rise, and Volo would be himself again. He would smile again. If he realised how he'd been behaving, he would surely apologise, and she would be relieved, and they would both return to the reason why they came here.
The plates. Arceus. This Giratina, too, if it had a place in what they were seeking. If it's real, and not just something Volo's dream invented for him.
Though she didn't want to turn her back on the entrance to her tent, Akari did just that. She could still see the fire's glow, and she wanted her body to hide the light from her phone as she took it out of her pocket, just in case Volo was looking this way.
As she reflected on Volo's words, about higher powers, and about the scant illusion of control that humans had, she had thought of another question to ask. Another message that would go unsent and unread. She made sure that the phone's volume was all the way down to zero before she typed her message.
'Would you ever let something bad happen to me?'