AN: Hi. I have nothing to say for myself. Expect another long hiatus before we return to normal programming.
After a brief yet emotional moment, we sat back down.
"Hey, do you remember when you taught us how to play that one game?" Aza broke the silence.
I perked up, pausing mid-bite. "Oh yeah, that one. What about it?"
"Do you want to play a couple more rounds?" Aza replied, "I've been playing against some of the others."
"Sure. Just let me grab the board," I said, popping out of my stool.
I began rifling through my journal's old pages until I came back across the terribly drawn board stuffed in between the pages like a crappy bookmark. Along the way, I passed through some of my oldest notes and drawings, and it caused me to think about just how far I'd come.
There were lines upon lines of random conversations filling up the pages, and notes scribbled in the margins guided me through it all.
There were sketches of my friends, my life, the dungeon I woke up in, and my death. With a solemn nod, I closed the journal and went back downstairs.
After switching from the bar to the table and setting up the board, it was my turn first. I pushed my edge piece out, hugging the wall so as to not get captured. Aza mimicked me on the opposite side, and the game progressed with both of us stalling for as long as possible. Eventually, something had to break.
I was the first to run out of available moves, and Aza was quick to capitalize on that, capturing two of my pieces and tipping the game in his favor. As she gained confidence, her turns became shorter, but mine slower. Despite the disadvantage, I managed to lure her into a trap and reclaim two of my lost pieces.
Yet, a few mistakes on my part later, she had me cornered—or so it seemed.
With a particularly bad blunder on her part, the smug smile that she once had was wiped away in seconds and replaced with absolute horror as I captured all four of her remaining pieces in a single move, emerging victorious in the end with only one piece to my name. Aza was obviously infuriated and suggested that we play something else.
I of course obliged, and let her decide what to do.
"So, where are we going?" I asked as we moved along the stone path. I noticed that we had been walking in a straight line for a long time, and I wondered what could be out this far.
"The beach," she replied with a mischievous smile.
I couldn't help but wonder what kind of fucked up version of Volleyball Pokemon would be playing. However, when we stopped, I saw no ball or court.
"This game is called 'Star'. Let me show you the rules," the Vaporeon instructed; an untrustworthy glimmer of excitement in her eyes.
Before I could react, she swung her arm directly into my abdomen, knocking my breath out of me as I doubled over in pain.
"What the hell was that for?!" I clutched my chest, heaving.
"That's the game!" she exclaimed with a hint of amusement, "We're not trying to kill each other, just knock each other down."
Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. I may have not been prepared, but no better opportunity would arise to confront her.
Still recovering, I mustered my breath and replied.
"Well, how about some payback for making me walk on broken glass earlier?"
Feeling a renewed sense of determination, I stood tall and began again with a strike to her shoulder.
However, unlike me, she stood firm.
"I had to teach you a lesson," she said, and her face drained of any cheerfulness she had just a moment ago.
She charged at me again, but this time, I was prepared. I braced myself and stood my ground.
"You say that's a lesson? You had—" I stopped. I grabbed her and spun around, turning her own force against her. She almost fell over, but not before I grabbed her by the frills. "—no right to hurt me!"
With my point made, I released my grip on her, and she fell to the ground.
"Sometimes you just gotta tank a few hits, if it means staying up in the end," she stared at me from the ground. I was caught off-guard, having expected her to start an argument. "That was advice. You're going to need it for what's coming next. I was going easy on you until now."
"What?"
Before I could prepare, she took a swing at my abdomen again, and I instinctively bent upwards into the position of a scaredy cat to dodge it.
Time seemed to slow down as I watched her other paw move in for a second strike. Then, I understood what her advice meant.
With a second strike to my side, I easily toppled over like a bowling pin.
"We can work on this later," Aza calmly spoke, reaching out her paw to help me up. Just as I felt stable again, a massive explosion rocked our surroundings, and the ground trembled. A shockwave reverberated through the air, splitting my ears with a painful shriek.
"What was that?!" I yelped.
"Someone tried to escape the island again," she groaned, rubbing her face in disappointment.
"Wait, 'escape'? what does that mean?" I asked.
Aza sighed, clearly frustrated. "There's only one safe way to leave this island. Whenever someone tries a different way, they end up exploding as soon as they get too far. It's why Tony doesn't want us to become an Explorers Team, as exploring out there is part of the job."
As if on cue, I turned to the water and saw an enormous white explosion of water and froth at least a dozen meters high fading away.
Confusion and horror overwhelmed me as I tried to understand the situation.
"What causes these explosions?" I asked.
"There are different theories," Aza replied, "some say they're the restless spirits of humans, aiming for revenge. Others think it's the island itself." His words rang through me, and the puzzle pieces in my head began to shift.
"What do you think it is?" I questioned, wasting no more time.
Aza paused to think.
"I lean more toward the first theory. I think some humans who died in the old battle are taking their revenge by holding us captive, making every attempt to leave explode."
I had no knowledge of any "old battle", and I knew I needed to find out more. So, I decided to plead ignorance and proceeded to probe further.
"Tell me about the battle." I leaned in, ready to intently listen to every word he was about to say.
Aza looked at me like the idiot I was, with a mix of surprise and confusion. "Umm, a long time ago a bunch of portals appeared and humans invaded the island. There was a war, they lost, and now every decade a new dungeon forms with a human inside." He rushed through the explanation, leaving me to fill in the details myself.
"But why do they keep coming back?" I pressed on.
Aza paused and thought for a moment. "What are you asking me for? I don't know. Nobody knows! Some think they're descendants of the original humans seeking revenge for their ancestors. Others believe they're just a test we have to pass for rewards. We'll never really know."
"Rewards?" I asked, confused about how doing something like this could be rewarded. Would I explode in a ball of confetti if I died? Was my only purpose in this world to die?
"Each dungeon generates items for Pokémon to use, but only after the human inside is dead. For instance, the oldest mystery dungeon on this island is actually just underneath the candy shop, and it gives us things we could never have otherwise, like flour, sugar, and butter."
As the puzzle pieces fell into place, a glimmer of revelation flickered within me. I held a secret, unspoken knowledge. I knew the truth. The real truth.
