13: A Lesson in Desperation

Akari had not expected to feel worse, after she'd managed to scrape her victory. She'd expected relief, but there was none.

Instead, there was shock. Though she'd won, Volo had wounded her, by the vicious and relentless way he battled. It would leave a scar, she knew. Perhaps it would be a permanent one.

Even if she'd known of his frightening new strength - something she would have celebrated, in different circumstances - she could not have expected what had just happened. Battles were fun, Volo used to say. A friendly competition. Not attempted murder.

If Blissey hadn't held out, if she'd run out of options, Akari was sure that Volo would not have stopped. For all his talk of not wanting to hurt her, he would have aimed his next attack at her. She could feel it. She could feel him considering it, in those split-seconds between her Pokémon switches and replacements.

Technically, Blissey was not Akari's last-standing Pokémon. She had made a snap decision to swap out Clefable just before the end, but the Fairy-type had so little left in her tank, she may as well have been out. Akari had felt awful about it, but it had been the right choice. Blissey, with her stamina, had braced herself through those last attacks in a way Clefable couldn't have.

As for the rest, it had been chaos, both trainers making rapid switches as they scrambled for a type advantage, for any advantage. Akari had said that there was more to battle than types, but despite everything he'd said, she hadn't expected Volo to know them so intimately. She'd been waiting for him to slip up; he never did.

It had been scrappy, both trainers and their Pokémon circling each other, trading positions as predator and prey. Akari only just realised that they had almost swapped places during the fray: now she was standing close to the steps that led down from the altar. Volo was at the other side, closer to the edge.

It had been pure luck. Akari could almost believe that Volo had been right, that this had been some pre-written story that she had no control over. He'd only been wrong about the ending.

Akari glanced back over her shoulder, down towards the aisle and her potential escape. She still didn't know what state Cloudcap Pass was really in; she thought perhaps she should go and find out, now that she was no longer trapped.

But, in his defeat, Volo looked like nothing more than a weak, sick man. Even from the other side of the altar - or the battlefield, as it had become - Akari could see him shaking.

Just as she thought he was going to collapse, he did. His knees buckled and he became a heap on the floor, lying on one side. He was propped up on an arm, for now, but it could have given way at any moment. His cloak slipped down from his shoulder, and Akari winced at the sight of his bare skin. He had draped and pinned his garment in such a way that it left his arms mostly exposed. His head was down, matted hair hanging loose like thick vines. It shielded his face from her.

After a few minutes, Akari took a step towards him. Blissey leapt into her way, grabbing at her trainer with her short arms, forming a barricade with her large body.

"Blissey, it's fine. I don't think he'll do anything now." The egg. Akari felt it pressed against her belly as she hugged Blissey. "You could heal him, right?"

But Blissey seemed to shake her head, swaying left and right, squeezing her eyes shut. Akari wasn't sure whether Blissey was too tired to be healing anyone, whether she was saying that Volo's problem couldn't be cured, or whether she just wouldn't, after what the man had done. Akari couldn't have blamed her.

It's her egg, and her choice how she uses it.

Akari managed to untangle herself from her Pokémon's desperate clinging. She stepped around Blissey, just in time to see Volo pulling something out of his pocket. Whatever it was, he ate it with a hunger than Akari hadn't seen from him, throughout this whole journey. Then he turned his head and spat.

At first, Akari thought it was just a physical expression of his hatred, aimed in her direction. But something blew across the altar, stopping at her feet. When she picked it up, she recognised it as the chewed-up stalk of a Direshroom.

Were humans supposed to eat these? Akari knew that they were the main ingredient in battle enhancers, for Pokémon. She had no idea what they might do to a person, but - well, that wasn't true anymore. She knew. She was learning, right now.

Still holding the stem between her fingers, Akari went to confront Volo, closely followed by her protective Blissey. When she got near enough, she could hear him muttering between his rapid, wheezing breaths. They sound like bitter words, she thought. But she couldn't be sure. They were spoken in another tongue, one which she did not know. Something about his tone told her not to get too close, but she couldn't leave him here like this.

"So, is this what you've been living on, this whole time?" There was hardly any sympathy in her voice, because she couldn't find any. "I think you've made yourself really sick."

"Why…?" Volo kept his head down. He was almost cowering, like Akari was an unbearable thing, too terrible to look at. "Why was it you? How can it be…you?"

Akari backed off as Volo began to move, even though his motions were sluggish and strained. He tried to slip his hand back into his cloak pocket. Even though it went against all of her self-preservation instincts, Akari ran to grab his offending arm. He was shivering so violently, and his skin so slick with sweat, it was hard for her to hold onto him. He was still so warm, too warm. Something must have been burning him up from the inside.

At least I know what it is now.

For a second or two, Akari was drawn into a wrestling match with her friend-turned-enemy, while Blissey watched and panicked behind her. But it was a pathetic contest. Volo was too weak to fight very much, and Akari didn't want to hurt him. She only wanted to stop him from stuffing another one of those mushrooms into his mouth, scared that he might not survive if he continued like this. Despite all that had happened, she wasn't about to let him die.

"Volo! Will you…stop…!?"

Something fell out of Volo's pocket. But it was no Direshroom. It was a purple plate, engraved on the side that Akari could see. There was no doubt about what it was. With it, there was a folded piece of paper, so worn out that it was nearly falling apart along the edges, and in the places where it was creased.

Volo looked up at her, through the gaps in his hair. For a moment, their eyes met. Then there was another scramble, as Volo tried to claw the plate back into his clutches.

Akari wasn't sure why she went for the paper, not the plate. She knew which one was more precious, but maybe she felt that Volo deserved to keep that plate, if he'd found it for himself. So, instead, she grabbed the note, then moved herself out of Volo's reach.

She didn't know what she was expecting to see on that paper. A diary entry about how he secretly wants me dead? But it was not that. It was something much more mundane, on first glance: an incomplete list of Akari's Pokémon, annotated with types, attacks, and what might have been strategy notes.

Did he write this in the privacy of his tent? When he was that close to me, was he scribbling all of this?

None of it would have mattered, had it been for the sake of a friendly battle. Akari would have thought it was great, actually, that he was putting so much thought into it. But, after what had just happened, she found herself thinking that she'd rather have read about Volo wishing her dead. It might have been easier to deal with.

After she'd picked up that Direshroom stalk, she'd hoped that it explained everything. She'd stopped feeling so betrayed. So stupid. She would have been happier to remain like that, believing that Volo had been out of his head, under the influence of something, this whole time. Then she could have told herself, 'it wasn't really him who attacked me! He didn't know what he was doing!'

The note seemed to change all of that. There must have been some planning involved, even if it had descended into madness. Akari wondered exactly when that had happened. His writing started out neat and organised, but it got worse as the note went on.

Whatever was written on the lower half was unreadable. The only clue was a scribbled drawing besides the words, but Akari couldn't recognise what it was supposed to be. A rune? A Pokémon? It could have been, but if so, it was no Pokémon that she had ever seen. She'd remember, if she'd seen a huge serpent with black wings like that.

Volo had started to write something beneath this bizarre illustration, but it looked as though he had snapped the lead of his pencil before he could finish. It ended in the middle of a word, written so roughly that the pencil had torn the paper. It ended with a carbon-stained hole, stabbed through the page. It ended, Akari thought, in some kind of distress.

Did he lose his pencil there? Or his mind?

Akari let her fingers go limp. The paper slid from her grasp and fell to the floor. Volo reached out for it weakly, but the wind grabbed it first, sweeping it off the altar and beyond the temple's broken pillars. It seemed to hover in the breeze for a second, like it was being read by something unseen. Then it was gone.

Now, finally, Akari allowed herself to feel relief. Relief that it was over. Relief that, this time, her nemesis might just have been a guy with a bunch of wild mushrooms, not some ancient deity tearing apart the fabric of reality. The problem that lay before her was upsetting, and way beyond her comfort zone, but it was an entirely human one.

Volo was still lying on the altar, deathly pale, clutching his single plate to his chest. Akari knew she had to get him out of there; with every passing minute, he looked worse. His breaths came at double speed, each exhale sounding like a wheeze, or a whistle -

The Celestica flute.

Akari nodded to herself as a plan began to form in her mind. Maybe she could convince Braviary to fly him to the village. If Akari told them nothing about what had happened, and if she pleaded and offered to compensate them, the Medical Corps would take care of him, wouldn't they? Even if he wasn't a member of the Galaxy Team?

She knew which pocket the flute was in; she'd seen him put it there. But, with the way he was lying on his side, she couldn't reach that pocket by herself.

"Hey. You need to give me the flute right now. It's the only way you're getting out of here."

She wasn't sure whether Volo was even hearing her. He was slumped flat on his side now, and he had started shaking in a rhythm that made Akari wonder whether this might have been a seizure. She was no doctor. She'd never even seen someone fitting before, as far as she could remember.

With his hair swept over his face, it reminded Akari of how people would cover the dead, for their own dignity.

What if he doesn't make it?

She began to panic as she realised what a real possibility that was. Even if she somehow managed to get him off this mountain, it was a cold truth that death was never too far away in Hisui. In a desperate flight of fantasy, she imagined that if only Arceus would show itself right now, and if only she could ask it, Volo might be swept along with her, back to her own time, where there would be ambulances and doctors and -

No matter what he said, there has to be a way for us to both get what we want. And for us both to be okay. There has to be.

Akari knelt down again, placed her hands on Volo's side, and tried to shake him. She could feel his ribs through his cloak and his bizarre handmade flag-garb.

"Hey! Volo, come on! How do we use the plates? How do we…? Blissey, please...!" She turned her head, almost screaming as she begged her Pokémon one more time. But the Happiness Pokémon was still pacing the alter and fretting, still unhappy. "Blissey! He's dying!"

Then Akari fell quiet. She could hear something. She held her breath and leaned closer to Volo. For a horrible moment, she wondered if that was what a death rattle sounded like.

Was this it? Would he just slip away, right here, while she watched? She had never seen someone die before. The thought of it had always frightened her.

She thought of the old graveyard, this time with one more grave at the top of the hill. Is that what he would want? How would she ever dig, in this cold ground? How would she move him?

I'm going to be sick.

Is this it?

No…

She stood up and backed away from him.

"Volo, are you…laughing?"

Akari suddenly felt dread - a new dread, spreading from the bottom of her stomach. She'd been fearing for Volo's life, and what she would do if he passed, but this was different. It was sickness, despair, horror. So intense, she felt like she'd inherited the terrors and sorrows of the entire world.

Just as she was telling herself that feelings weren't always rational, the wind stopped. Not a gentle dying down. The air became still, not even a breeze.

Akari might have expected to feel warmer, then, without that chilling, howling wind. But it was the opposite. The temperature seemed to drop, until she felt like she was being encased in ice. She imagined it freezing her bone marrow. There was pain, physical pain, like all of her limbs were about to crack.

Even then, she worried for Volo. But he was getting up, still holding that plate to his chest like a shield. His body was still trembling, but now she could see that he was shaking with uncontrolled laughter.

And that smile. She'd seen so many of Volo's smiles, but this one reminded of her of how the temple had broken apart. Just like that, Volo's smile seemed to split his face in half.

Can Direshrooms do that?

Akari heard a patter of footsteps behind her. They came to a stop at her side. She could not turn around, couldn't tear her gaze away from Volo's terrible face. But she didn't need to see: the presence beside her radiated safety. Happiness. In the face of whatever was happening, she had her own beacon of light.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blissey taking a battle stance. Akari didn't know why yet. She would come to know, but Blissey must have sensed it first.

The sky turned black, cracking and yawning. A rift.

It was something Akari had hoped never to see again, unless it was her passage home. But this one seemed to engulf the whole world. Akari didn't know where to look. Unlike the previous rifts, which had looked like a fissure in the sky, this one was...everywhere. It was above her, around her, everywhere. The sun had been swallowed up. Its light was gone.

The air had changed, replaced by something thick and black. Whether it was smoke or shadow, Akari could feel it filling her lungs. She was breathing, but every breath chilled her lungs. She was inhaling something not of this world.

No, I don't think Direshrooms can do that.

Soon she knew exactly where to look. Behind Volo's own terrible smile, another grin appeared in the darkness, beneath a pair of round red eyes.

Does he know...? What's behind him...?

Akari took one more step, intending to reach for Volo and pull him away from whatever that was, but an irresistible force was pushing her backwards. She tried to resist it, but she lost her balance before Blissey could catch her.

The base of her spine hit unyielding stone. She barely felt the pain; that would come later, she knew. She got up again, just in time to see an eruption of shadowy wings.

The wings from Volo's drawing.

They seemed to sprout from his own back. If they did, he showed no pain, no fear. His smile only grew. The grin in the sky grew with it, like they were one and the same. The altar shook as grey limbs, thick as tree trunks and tipped with sharpened gold, stepped out of the black.

"Giratina!" Volo lifted one hand from the plate. He pointed a shaky finger in Akari's direction. "Strike her down!"

That thing…that's Giratina? And Volo thinks it listens to h-

Akari could not finish her current thought before a silent explosion knocked her straight off her feet. This time, she didn't only fall back onto her rear. She felt like she flew. She felt the weightlessness and the rush of air that she'd expected to feel, that day on the ridge, when she thought she was falling.

When she landed, it was heavy, her whole side taking the impact of her fall. First her hip, then her ribcage. Finally, she felt her head bounce off the floor. The crack echoed in her ears, a sickening sound that must have signified something dire. When she opened her eyes, everything was a mess of swirling, dancing colours.

It listens to him.

"Blissey…"

There was no response, but Akari didn't expect one. There was no way Blissey would have done nothing to protect her; she'd been right there, ready to fight. That same attack must have knocked her out, too.

"Dear Akari. I never wanted to see you hurt like this."

That was Volo's voice, but Akari couldn't tell where it was coming from. It sounded like he was whispering in her ear. Her arm flailed, trying to hit him, but he was not there. She rolled onto her back, dazed, trying to find him. But she could not lift her head to search; when she tried, it felt too heavy for her neck.

There was something standing over her, a face staring down into her own, but it was no human face. She could only see its red eyes, half-lidded, devoid of any readable emotion.

"Giratina…?" she whispered, hoping to see some reaction. But there was nothing.

"Mighty Giratina has its own score to settle with Arceus." Volo sounded so close, again. It must have been the way this strange atmosphere carried noise. "This is much bigger than either of us. You have played your part by collecting the plates - now you either hand them over, or this is where your story ends. Don't make me do that, Akari. If I meet Arceus, I don't want - that is to say, if I capture it, and fix this awful world…I only want to make something better. Let it not be built on something I'll regret."

This is all my fault. I shouldn't have collected the plates. I shouldn't have shown them to him. I shouldn't have agreed to come here. I shouldn't have -

"I just wanted to go home." She spoke to Giratina, like she was telling it a secret. But it only continued to stare at her. Like a bird staring at a bug, she thought.

"And you will, my friend." How does he sound so convincing, even now? "You don't belong here."

Akari began to weigh up her last shot, knowing that she might not have been thinking straight, and that if it failed, she was done. Volo would win, and take the plates from her lifeless body. That might not have been the ending he'd wanted, but so be it. He would have to live with it. Let it be the price you pay for your new world.

"Alright," she said. "Here. The plates."

She felt for her satchel. It was already hanging open, but nothing seemed to be lost, as far as her fingertips could tell. There were the plates. And Akari knew exactly where Clefable's Poké Ball was, without having to see. In that moment when she'd decided to withdraw her and send out Blissey, she remembered wedging the ball on the other side of the plates, separating it from the rest.

Akari moved the plates aside with her knuckles, grabbed that lone Pokémon Ball, and aimed it into Giratina's face.

"Draining Kiss!"

Covering her head with both arms, she rolled to one side, so that Clefable wouldn't manifest right on top of her.

The altar was filled with light. There was an earth-shaking screech, one which could only have come from Giratina. Akari heard herself screaming with it, a dissonant harmony, as her movement sent waves of pain shooting down her side and through her head.

Though it made her cry out, she tried to get up. She could only manage to raise herself onto her hands and knees, but that would have to do. She would have to crawl, then.

Through the bright glare of Clefable's attack, she saw Blissey, slumped unconscious against a pillar at the side of the altar. Akari dragged herself over to her fallen Pokémon and brought out the last healing item that had been in her bag. Just one ordinary Revive. That was all she had left. Volo's promise to supply any items she needed, and her trust in him, meant that she had not stocked up very well before they'd set off.

"Blissey, get up…use Soft-Boiled…" That would use up her egg, but at least she still had it.

Thank you for not agreeing to heal him. Thank you for saving your strength.

As Blissey rose up, Akari collapsed to the floor again. She watched, shocked but unable to do anything, as Blissey disobeyed her for the first time. Her egg stayed in her pouch, and instead, the Happiness Pokémon opted for something that looked like another Draining Kiss, just like Clefable's.

Akari was so dazed, she could not even be sure she'd given the right command, or that she was seeing things correctly. She tried to sit up, telling herself that she needed to survive, even if it was only for long enough to command her Pokémon. But she just couldn't. When she tried to move again, her stomach decided to empty itself. She couldn't stop herself from being sick, even though the spasms racked her torso with even more agony.

This isn't good.

Volo might have thought that this two-against-one fight was unfair, but Akari was long past caring about that now. It was working. Giratina was weakening.

Right…?

She blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Everything was so hazy.

Something was happening to Giratina. But now she wasn't so sure what it was.

The entity's legs seemed to fold beneath it, as though it were falling. But then its limbs disappeared altogether and it crashed to the ground. Was it sinking into the altar...?

Blissey and Clefable must have thought that they had already won: for now, they had stopped attacking, seizing the much-needed chance to catch their breath.

But Giratina was growing, body lengthening, spikes taking the place of limbs. Its shadowy wings seemed to multiply, as though by mitosis, two becoming…six? Eight? It was so hard to tell; they moved as though they were made of something immaterial, something that obeyed no laws.

As Akari watched, seized by a new wave of horror, Giratina raised itself into the air on those void-like wings. Its scream shook the temple's foundations. Akari felt the vibrations through her body, and it felt as though her bones would split. She held her sleeves over her mouth to muffle her own scream.

Then, in a flash, Giratina was gone, almost as if it had simply blinked out of existence.

But Akari knew it wasn't over. The sky was still black. She could feel the tension in the air, even in the stones beneath her, like the temple was trembling in anticipation.

Another silent explosion sent a shockwave through the air. Akari was already lying down, so she was not hurled quite so far this time. But she still felt the force of that attack pushing her back, no matter how much she tried to dig her nails into the stone beneath her.

She wrapped her arms around one of the pillars at the altar's edge; it was the only thing stopping her from being blown through the gap and falling to her death. She felt so broken, she thought perhaps she might have died even before she hit the bottom.

I can't give up. Not yet.

One of her Pokémon was still standing, just barely. The other was slumped on the altar steps. But Akari could not tell which was Blissey, and which was Clefable. Both were just blurry pink shapes.

As she squinted, trying to sharpen her vision, a darker form snaked into her line of sight. She tried to follow it with her eyes as it came to hover above her. She had been here before, but Giratina looked much more dangerous now. It was much closer. She thought she could see spears atop each of its wings, all of them aimed in her direction.

Using the pillar that had just saved her life, Akari tried to prop herself up. She only managed to get into a half-sitting position. From here, she looked up at Giratina, holding out her trembling arms as a barrier between them. She knew that wouldn't save her, but her body was doing whatever it could.

Giratina, strike her down.

She waited for Volo to say it again. This time, she knew, it would be the end.

At least I tried.

Akari reached up towards her end. Her fingers brushed against something that felt like cold metal, but much colder. She assumed it must have been some part of Giratina.

"'M'sorry…for what…happ'ned t'you." Her words came out slurred; her tongue suddenly felt too heavy in her mouth, like it was trying to roll back into her throat and suffocate her instead. "I 's…banished…too."

From wherever he was, she heard Volo's voice.

"No. Stop. I see what you're doing! Do you really think your sad petitions will work? Giratina gifted this plate to me! We are united! Your usual charms won't work this time!" Then he laughed. Such an ugly, taunting sound, Akari was brought to tears by it. "Oh, isn't it a shame...? You don't have any balms this time!"

Akari couldn't speak anymore. She couldn't see anymore. She only knew that she was crying because she could feel the heat of her tears, pooling in her eyes and rapidly spilling over to run down the sides of her face, down her neck, into her hair.

I was banished, too. And I was angry. I still am, sometimes. But I still think this place is worth protecting. I don't want to see it destroyed. I know that a lot of things have gone wrong, but there has to be some other way to make it better.

"Whatever she's saying, don't listen to her!"

I think that's true for you, too. Giratina.

Akari felt a rush of air as Giratina moved. Just as she wondered whether it was about to strike her for the last time, she felt its presence lift from above her. But she could still feel its anguish, and she worried that it may have simply been redirected.

"Don't…" she tried to whisper, but her voice made no sound.

Please, don't attack him either. He's just as hurt as you are.

Volo let out a yell.

"No…Mighty Giratina…please - !"

Akari hoped he was alright. Despite everything, she didn't want to leave with the thought that he'd fallen on his own sword.

The sky suddenly lightened, as though an eclipse had just ended. The wind returned, but gentler than it had been before. It must have started to snow again; Akari felt the first few flakes landing on her lips and eyelashes. And yet, somehow, the air felt warmer than it had been a minute ago.

"You…" Volo's voice was low, trembling with fury. Oh. At least he's alive, I guess. "What did you do? What did you say? You turned Mighty Giratina away from me!? You poisonous little Qwilfish, this isn't over! I will take those plates from you right now!"

Akari could do nothing as she heard him striding across the altar towards her. Her breathing was so shallow now, it was all she could do to keep breathing. Defending herself was out of the question.

But she only heard a few angry steps, followed by a heavy thud, the sound of a body hitting the floor. She knew that sound very well by now. Volo grunted and wheezed like the wind had just been knocked out of his lungs. Something clattered to the floor with a quiet clink. Then there was quiet.

Akari realised that she felt warm. Not the feverish kind of heat that she'd felt coming from Volo, but a comforting warmth that reminded her of home. Home home. A thick blanket. A bowl of miso broth ramen. A hug from someone who loved her. A hot bath. Clothes fresh out of the…drying machine? Is that a thing that exists?! Sounds weird.

Her vision was filled with a golden glow. She knew it might have been a sign of the end, but even with that possibility in mind, she felt a thrill of excitement. She was about to go somewhere new.

Or perhaps this was Arceus, about to send her home. She couldn't remember what it had felt like, just before she'd fallen through the rift. Maybe it had been just like this.

But the glow faded, and with it, its warmth. Akari blinked as she realised that her vision was back to normal; she was seeing the sky, bluer than before, and the snow floating through the air. She no longer felt quite so sick. She couldn't say that all of her pain had stopped, but it was better. The urgent throbbing and pressure that she'd felt in the side of her head was now just a mild headache. When she moved, she only felt achy, rather than broken.

When she thought about it, it felt like the pain was far away. The same was true of everything that had just happened. The terror that she'd just survived. Her anger towards Volo. The painful questions that still hung around, about whether he'd intended this all along. All of those heavy feelings were somewhere else now, waiting for her to pick them up again when she was ready. When she was stronger.

Blissey was sitting in the middle of the altar, looking drained but happy. Her egg pouch was empty.

It took Akari a moment to realise that Volo was underneath Blissey. He was lying on his front, his face buried in his arms - probably out of humiliation, more than anything else.

Good thing she's nowhere near as heavy as she looks, otherwise she'd crush him.

He can stay there for now.

"Blissey…did you…heal me?" Akari got up, testing her strength and finding it much better than before.

Her nose tickled, and she let out a violent sneeze into the crook of her arm.

Guess not everything is cured.

Akari turned around, looking for Clefable. The Fairy-type Pokémon was just stirring back into consciousness and clambering her way up the altar steps. Akari ran to embrace her. She kissed her, whispered her gratitude into her ear, then withdrew her back into her ball for some well-earned rest.

Then something caught Akari's eye, shining at the edge of the altar. She wondered if it might have been something dropped by Giratina. But when she got closer to it, she recognised it as Volo's crafting knife.

So, that was why Blissey hit him. I can't believe this.

Akari considered picking it up, but she knew she'd never be able to use it. Not even in self-defence could she plunge that blade into a living person. She wondered if Volo would have been able to do it, even in his rage, but she wasn't about to find out. She kicked the knife away, off the altar and off the mountain. There was a clink, just once, as it glanced off a rock on its way down the cliff.

"How many times will you try to kill me on this damn mountain!?" Akari beckoned to Blissey. "Let him get up. If he has anything else he wants to throw at me, I want him to do it now. Get it over with."

Blissey seemed less than pleased about it, but she obeyed this time. She rolled her way off Volo's back, using his legs like a track. Akari was sure she'd done that on purpose; she might have been exhausted, but she was capable of getting back onto her feet normally when she wanted to.

Can't blame her.

Stealing wary glances at Blissey, Volo got up onto his hands and knees. But he did not stand up. He sat back onto his heels. With a shake of his head, he took something out of his cloak and slid it along the snow-dusted altar towards Akari.

The plate.

"Did Giratina really give you this?" Akari asked as she leaned down to pick it up.

"I don't know." Volo's eyes were fixed on the altar, on the spot where the plate had just been. "I…wasn't lying. About the vis-…the dream I had, in Moonview Arena. I found that plate the next day. It was sticking out of the ground, near the Giratina statue. For a while, I wanted to believe that it was a gift from Almighty Arceus. But…"

He seemed unable to finish his sentence. His face contorted in pain and confusion.

Akari looked down at the plate and read it out loud. "'The other side of this world was given by the Original One to its raging third.' Giratina is the 'raging third', then?"

She had read about this 'other side of the world', or the 'opposite world', on some of the other plates. She didn't know what it was, but she wondered whether it really did represent a banishment, as Volo had described it. Being given a whole world seemed more generous than that, although she supposed that depended on what the world was like, and whether a creature such as Giratina would feel the same sense of rejection and loneliness that a human might.

I don't think I'd want to be alone in my own world.

But she didn't feel like this was the time to talk about it.

"Whether this plate was given to you, or whether you just happened to find it," she said, "I don't want to steal it from you. Even if that's what you tried to do to me. I'm not like you."

"The plates have to be together."

Volo reached into his pocket and rolled the Celestica flute along the floor. Akari stopped it with her foot and bent down to pick it up.

Since Volo seemed resolved in what he was saying, Akari opened her satchel and slipped the plate next to the others. They did not become any heavier. She was used to that by now. But she was watching, gazing into her satchel, expecting something to happen. The plates did not change.

But the flute did.

Akari let go of it, shocked by the sudden electric-shock-like tingle in her hand. But it did not fall to the altar. It glowed in the air, changing shape, like a Pokémon going through evolution. As the glow faded, Akari reached out to catch whatever had taken its place.

Still a flute, but not the same one. Now its body was thicker, reminiscent of coral, or perhaps a Pokémon shell.

Volo stared at the flute, his eyes so wide that Akari could see stark white, all the way around the large black circles of his pupils. But the sight of Blissey must have held him back. Instead, he crawled a few slow paces, constantly watching Akari's Pokémon, until he didn't dare get any closer.

From here, he could only reach out with his eyes and his voice. His expression flitted between rage and desperation. He bent low, so that he was almost flat against the ground, hands clasped in prayer. It reminded Akari of when Kamado had begged for her forgiveness. But Volo did not ask for that.

"Play the flute. Play it. Play it! We can still...we can still meet Arceus..."

Akari and Blissey exchanged glances. The Happiness Pokémon looked anxious.

"Are you sure you still want to meet Arceus?" Akari asked. "After what you did? Aren't you worried it might be...I dunno...unhappy with you? Or do you still think this was all part of your great story, plan, destiny, whatever...?"

"Please play the flute!" Volo muttered into his hands.

"Fine. I will play the flute. Not for you, Volo. But because I also want to see what will happen. And if Arceus does show up, I don't think it'll need protecting from you, so...sure, let's do it. I really hope it'll be merciful to you."

Volo chewed on his lips and wrung his hands, fingers clutching anxiously at each other, as Akari lifted the flute to her mouth.

Unlike the Celestica flute, which had required her to learn its call, the Azure flute seemed to have a mind of its own. She tried to play the usual call, but it decided to do something else. She was only providing the air; the tune created itself. Nothing like the Celestica flute's sharp and brief whistle, this was a low, haunting melody. When it was over, though Akari continued to blow across the mouthpiece, there was no more sound.

A moment later, she felt her phone buzzing against her thigh, just once.

She'd forgotten it was there, and now she wondered if it had survived her being flung around a stone altar like a bag of bones by an ancient god, or whether she would finally find a crack in its screen. What she'd just been through had felt much worse, somehow, than falling out of the sky.

But she wasn't about to look at her phone. She wouldn't do that until she was alone and safe.

She held her breath in anticipation, waiting for that faint sound to ignite a fresh wave of anger in Volo. To start another war. But there was no sign that he had heard it.

"See?" Akari tucked the flute under her arm, shielding it with her other hand. Removing it from Volo's sight probably wouldn't help, but she felt the need to do it. "Nothing happened."

Volo sat back, hands in his lap, staring at Akari's feet - or, more likely, at nothing in particular. Finally, it seemed like he was starting to feel the cold. He wrapped his cloak tightly around himself and shivered.

"The plates…the flute…Giratina…"

"Yeah. All of that, and it didn't get you what you wanted." Akari sighed heavily. "Please will you stop now? Come back to the village with me. There are people who can help you. Or they'll try. I'd like to say 'no hard feelings' but…I can't. And I don't think you can expect that from me. Not after everything you did. But I still want you to be okay, Volo."

"I can't stop. I'll never stop. Do you hear me?" Volo held up both hands in surrender, eyes fixed on Blissey, as he slowly rose to his feet. "Not until I've seen Arceus with my own eyes. Not until it answers my questions. Not until it tells me that I'm worthy. Not until it recognises me! Like it did the Ancient Hero! Not until I ask it why…"

"Why...what...?" Akari tried to find her anger again; it was still so far away. Blissey's egg had replaced it with a gentle grace, and Akari wasn't sure if she liked it. It made her sound like she was pleading with Volo. But it was all she had. "What question could be so important that you'd do all of this, just for an answer?"

Blissey's healing might have dulled her fear, but she still knew that she'd been hanging over the edge back there. Did she not deserve to know what she had almost died for?

"'Why did you abandon us? And me?'"

Akari had been expecting something more grandiose than that. They were still big questions, but small and human enough to hurt her heart.

She wanted to say so much. She wanted to say that, even if Volo did encounter Arceus, there was no guarantee it would answer any of his questions.

She even considered taking out her phone, for the sake of showing him what she'd decided not to show him before: the countless unsent, unseen messages. Why did you send me here? Why did you pick me? What do you want from me? What if I can't do this? Will I ever get to go home? Would you ever let something bad happen to me?

But she didn't get the chance to say anything.

Volo was looking around at the pillars that surrounded the altar, his eyes just as wild as they had been before, but this time they were not focused on Akari. Now he just looked like a caged animal, scrambling for an escape. And this time, Akari was the one blocking his way out.

With the terrifying thought that he might decide to jump, Akari quickly stood aside, ushering Blissey with her. As she did so, she hoped that Volo might change his mind and let her help. There were too many things left unanswered. But he fled as soon as the steps were open to him.

Akari had no idea where he would go, if he'd made the tunnel impassable. But that was his problem now. She was going to worry about herself.

She lifted the flute to her lips again. This time, it played the call of the Celestica flute. Akari hugged Blissey tightly, then called her back into her capsule. She waited for the sound of Braviary's wings.