June 16th, First Year
Arceus, the water is cold today! Akari wanted to finish her soaking and throw her clothes back on as quickly as humanly possible. She gave a yelp as something bumped against her waist. She turned. A pair of beady eyes stared back at her as a small Bidoof floated past her in the current. It gave her a curious chirp. From the bank, Mars snorted.
"Ha ha ha. Real funny guys," Akari muttered, wringing out her washcloth. "Just you wait until I get out of here." She wouldn't be able to leave until she thoroughly combed the twigs, rocks, and grit from her hair. It was one of the only things Akari was particular about: being clean. A terrible match with the job she had where scouting pokémon usually left her filthy by the day's end.
She began working the grit out of her hair using a wooden comb she had purchased from the Jubilife hairdresser, taking a seat on a smooth river-washed outcrop. The comb had been one of the first things she had purchased with the money the Galaxy Team gave her. The simple practice of combing her hair was soothing. Nice, even.
"Isn't it a bit too cold to be bathing right now?"
Akari screeched and hurried to dive back into the water, holding her washcloth in front of her like a shield as she searched angrily for the intruder. Her eyes caught immediately on a large silhouette leaning against a nearby ash tree, their arms crossed as they smirked at her.
"Volo, can you please stop sneaking up on me?" Akari growled, scrambling to cover her exposed chest. How long has he been standing there for? She felt her face heat up, splashing water at the man in an attempt to get him to leave. Is the water here see-through? Arceus above, I hope he can't see me entirely. "How hard is it to just make noises so I know you're approaching?"
"Very, very difficult. You should post better guards," Volo replied snippily, not seeming to take in Akari's obvious discomfort as he continued to look. Volo caught her stare and finally looked away. "You're going to get sick bathing in water that cold, you know."
"What are you? My dad?" Akari retorted, going back to combing her hair. "Of course, I know that. I can't just walk around looking disgusting. Maybe that's a you thing," she added sarcastically.
"A me thing?" Volo drew his hand up as if offended, setting down his pack a little ways away from the view of the river. His voice had been loud enough that it had carried over to the bay through the trees. "You offend me so! And here I was, traversing such a distance all to bring you a gift! I should think not now that you've gone and hurt my feelings and all!"
Akari had grown used to Volo's playful banter. Over the few days she'd spent collecting information about the plates from Arceus and scouting for Professor Laventon, Volo would manage to surprise her and bring her a few things relevant that he'd found during his trips to-and-fro for the Gingko Guild. She had no idea where exactly he went to on those trips, though.
"Boo hoo. Cry me a river," Akari snarked back.
"I guess I'll just have to keep this wonderful gift to myself then!" Volo retorted. There was a pause. "A shame. I had a feeling you would've liked this one."
Akari gave a long and dramatic sigh before slowly making her way out of the river. "Hold on! Hold on! Give me a moment! I have to dry off."
When Akari finally got dressed and warmed up by an impatient Mars, she walked into their makeshift camp to see Volo already having set up his tent next to hers. He was sitting idly by the fire as he inspected the Insect Plate, his brows furrowed and his hand on his chin looking deep in concentration.
The silver lapel pins holding his apron to his main suit had been snapped off and now, the gilded apron was draped leisurely across his lap. His large rucksack had been shucked off to lay flat on the ground, allowing Akari to sneak a peek at what Volo wore under his uniform top. Where the cerulean, fur-lined collar of his jacket fell away revealed a nearly skin-tight black shirt. Oh. His shoulders are much broader than they looked under the jacket, Akari thought. And boy, was Akari beginning to gain an appreciation for those shirts because they left nothing to the imagination. She could practically trace the outlines of the smooth muscle along his chest and waist.
Golden strands of his hair fell around the sides of his face, curling into his jacket collar and over his back. If she were standing at a different spot, she might even be able to glimpse his other eye, the one that was hidden under his bangs all the time. And Volo wasn't looking. After all, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
She liked this look on him. It suited him well, much better than his happy-go-lucky grin that never quite met his eyes. Akari often wondered what Volo was like when he wasn't working for the Gingko Guild. She waited to see how long it would take him to notice her. One minute. Five minutes. Seven min-
"You must really enjoy staring at me." Volo glanced up at her from his position, mouth twitching up in a knowing smirk.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck- "No. I was waiting for you to answer my question," Akari replied hastily, turning in hopes that Volo wouldn't see how red her face was turning.
Volo blinked. "Oh," he spoke softly. And then his eyes narrowed. "What was your question?"
"How long are you going to stare at that plate for?" Akari pulled out her waterskin and took a drink, seating herself smugly across the fire from Volo.
"…Really? That was your question?"
"Really! I heard something interesting today," she started. "But you like to rant so tell me what you found first."
"My rants are fascinating, I'll have you know."
Volo had stopped using his customer service voice with her. His regular voice, she thought, is much more pleasant to listen to. Much deeper and sultrier than she had ever imagined. She stopped her thoughts in their tracks and tried her best to pay attention as Volo pulled out a large pink plate, free of knicks or dents like the Insect Plate.
"The Mind Plate!" she exclaimed. "So you managed to get it from Warden Mai, then?"
Volo nodded, stacking it atop the Insect Plate. "I did, but it was a hassle doing so. That woman is much sharper than she lets on."
"Was it because I wasn't the one to quell Lord Kleavor?" She still felt a pang of shame at the mention of the lord. She hadn't been the one to quell it; Warden Ingo had. She wished she would've been more of a help defeating it. It had been nice of Warden Lian to let them borrow the Insect Plate, though.
"No, no. It wasn't that. She just didn't believe me when I said I would deliver the plate to you, though she was hoping one of us would take it to your friend. Jaku, was it?"
"Right, right." Akari blinked owlishly, taking the smooth pink plate in her hands. Almost immediately, her fingers began to tremble. Her ears began to ring and a sharp pit of nausea opened up in her gut. Akari opened her mouth to speak but choked as a wave of water slammed into her. Cold. Something sharp tugged at the hem of her pants, pulling her deeper into the river as she fought against the current. She called out for help, withering when her voice sputtered out immediately after leaving her lips. Where's Volo? Where are my pokémon? Another wave closed over her head and left her gasping, flailing about in the water to try to surface. I don't know how to swim! And then she saw it; there, on the muddy riverbank, a pair of beady eyes staring coldly at her. Oshawott.
And in the frame of a second, she was sitting on the log again, her hands clenching the Mind Plate with an obsession Akari had never known. Was that just an illusion? She cleared her throat, remembering the odd berries she had eaten that morning. Just an illusion. Oshawott's dealt with; it's not coming back any time soon.
"We're not actually going to track Jaku down to bring this to her, are we?" Akari mumbled. That woman had seemed to disappear completely after her stunt with Lord Wyrdeer. All Akari knew was that she had gone back to the Crimson Mirelands and had fallen under the radar.
"Of course not. We need to keep this one with us if we're going to summon Arceus."
"She'll understand," Akari waved off her brief flash of concern. "After all, it seems like I'm the only one looking to go home between the three of us. What she doesn't know won't hurt her."
"Exactly. I like the way you think. So, what did you find out on your end?"
"Apparently, Warden Ingo is collecting some old verses or something like that." She immediately noticed the same flash of interest in the older man's eyes as he tore his attention away from the new plate. Akari continued. "Professor Laventon and Rei told me all about it when I was there two days ago. One of our historians is doing some research on it. These weird verses are all written in Celestican from what I heard."
Volo smiled. It was a predatory smile- all teeth all the way up to the man's eyes- the one Volo often wore when he left to go hunt something for dinner or when he stumbled upon a particularly juicy bit of information. "Celestican, you say? Perhaps we should head back to Jubilife then. I would love to see what these Old Verses are and what they say. I can read Celestican, you know."
"The historian says that they have to do with legends and myths. Right up your alleyway, actually. I'm surprised you didn't find one first." She shrugged. "I haven't gotten the chance to actually see them since he's keeping it behind a lock and key."
"We'll see about that."
June 17th, First Year
"Volo, wake up. It's almost noon." Akari was just about to throw a small stone at the tent when the merchant peered groggily through the opening, his eyes glazed over with fatigue and something else that Akari couldn't quite discern… Ah. He's not wearing a shirt.
"You don't have to be so loud about it," Volo muttered sleepily, combing a hand through his hair. Akari thought she could make out a few scars along his side and bicep, too distracted by his loose golden hair flowing around his face. "Staring is rude, you know."
"Then go put on that ridiculous uniform of yours then!" Akari retorted back, red-faced. He'd caught her staring. Again. Great. I really needed to get a handle on that.
Akari busied herself cleaning up their campsite, burying their campfire under a mound of dirt and pebbles. She made quick work of packing up her tent and supplies, Saturn under her arm as she got a helping of the leftover stew from the night before. She fought back the wave of nausea that grew in her stomach from looking at it. Her dreams that night had been all but none. She'd gone to bed feeling fine but woke up feeling as though somebody had fed her poison.
The weather certainly didn't help. It was cloudier than Akari had ever known the fieldlands to be. Dark gray storm clouds writhed on the horizon and the foggy trails dipping toward the ground in the distance told Akari that rain was on its way.
"Might want to hurry things up, Volo. Looks like it's going to rain today."
"I doubt it." Volo finally emerged from his tent, his hair still out of its usual bun. He began gathering the strands of his hair in his hands as he took a seat on a log.
"Yeah, well it's going to storm soon, and I don't think either of us want to get caught in a time rift."
"No guarantee one will spawn anywhere around us. Is there any leftover stew?"
"Plenty. I covered the pot before we went to sleep, remember?"
They set off just as the sun was overheard through the clouds. It would take maybe three days for them to arrive at Jubilife. To Akari, Volo never seemed to lose the motivated spring in his step, eyes always set on the horizon as his pokémon toddled after him. Not long after they set out, curiously, they were greeted by a familiar face.
"Well, if it isn't Warden Ingo!" Volo adopted his signature showy voice, both of them watching with mild concern as the man hung precariously from a rocky ledge far above by only his fingers.
"Hmm? Oh. Good afternoon!" The warden boomed. Without so much as flinching, he dropped down the ledge almost cat-like and stood, shaking the dust and debris from his torn shirt. His skin-tight torn shirt.
I'm not gonna look, Akari promised herself.
Warden Ingo pulled on his cap. "Merchant Volo and Young Akari. A pleasure to see you both."
A pleasure was an understatement. If Volo was lithe then Warden Ingo was- to put it mildly and crudely- built. Akari knew that ogling the man was wrong. Very wrong… but gods, do these shirts hide nothing! Akari could see everything. Every link of smooth muscle in his chest, arms, and waist. She felt her eyes drawing towards the man's hands, noticing with faint excitement at how weathered and calloused they were. She wished the reclusive warden would abandon his top layers more often.
A sharp poke to her back brought her out of her stupor, her face reddening as she caught Volo's knowing glance while the warden was turned away from them briefly. He knew. Volo's eyes narrowed and a coy grin danced along his lips. Akari hurriedly turned away, pulling her scarf tightly around her neck and chin.
"I should say the same, Warden Ingo," Volo beamed. "A little birdie told me that you're collecting ancient artifacts. Is that not correct?"
Ingo blinked. "It is. Word does seem to travel fast around here." He carefully took out a wooden box from his pack and held it out for Volo to see. "From what I've been told, this is an 'Old Verse'. Alas, it is written in Celestican and so I cannot read it."
"Why collect it then?" Akari piped up. "Does it have anything to do with us being stuck here in Hisui?"
It was then that Warden Ingo frowned, even moreso when Volo gently took the paper in his hand, his eyes hungrily pouring over the text. Ingo looked to her then, his silver eyes seeming to burn into hers as he squinted, his hands trailing absently to his pokéball clip. "I am not sure. The first one that I collected was abandoned in the Coronet Highlands. As for the others, I have been-" he paused, fidgeting with a string on his coat- "I was strongly encouraged by both the Pearl Clan and the Galaxy Team to continue along my tracks in searching for them."
"Oh, but don't you have to watch over the Highlands? Do you have any time to be searching for these?" Akari queried.
"My time is certainly limited, but I am working with the Diamond Clan to see how many of these artifacts can be uncovered. There are believed to be many of these verses in the wilds of Hisui; the real trouble is in locating them."
"I can see that," Volo muttered. He carefully peeled back a layer of caked on dirt that had been encrusted onto the lid. "Did you… dig this out of the ground?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. Warden Calaba of the Pearl Clan was the one who gave me a hint of its location. As I am told, her noble, Lord Ursaluna, can effortlessly sniff them out. We have yet to work out the finer details."
"Huh. I never would've thought to look underground for relics such as this. Interesting." Volo, seemingly content with the new development, laid the paper back in its mud-encrusted box and returned it back to the warden. "Seems intriguing. Do let me know when you find the rest of them! As a man interested in ruins and legends of old, nothing would make me happier than seeing them all together and translated in the flesh!"
"I will do just that, good sir," Warden Ingo nodded. "Now then. I suppose I must continue my search. Do take care on your journey back." With a slight grunt, the man hauled himself back onto the cliff and disappeared behind a spur in the rock.
"Not a word," Akari growled.
"My lips are sealed."
Despite his words, Akari had felt Volo's smug stare burning into the back of her head the entire trip around Deertrack Heights. When they had eventually made it back to the Fieldlands Encampment at Aspiration Hill, they had agreed to split and reconvene later that day. Volo gave her a nod and a wink as he made to mingle with the other merchants; probably to gather more information or see whether Ginter had finally laid him off. Akari decided that she would set up her sleeping bag and do a thorough inspection of the plates before the sun disappeared and the growing storm emerged.
She leaned against Mars, hearing the large equine snuffle as it sniffed at her hair. Saturn laid across her lap with a razz berry caught in its claws taking itty bitty bites from an oran berry. She carefully held up the Insect Plate, fingers tracing the indents along the base and sidings of the object. It felt squishy, soft almost. Volo seemed to pour over those plates whenever he could. Akari knew the man could read Celestican; that he was one of the last descendants of the ancient Celesticans too. He never relished the opportunity to claim so. Maybe that's why he's so interested in Arceus.
Akari had noticed with faint unease that though Volo often called himself a descendant, that there were no current Celestican inhabitants of Hisui. At least, none talked about throughout the clans or marked on a map. She had asked Volo specifically. Twice, actually. But each time she had asked him about it, the merchant would shake his head and tell her that he didn't want to talk about it. A sensitive topic, she had guessed. He would stop smiling. Akari hated it when Volo stopped smiling.
Saturn perked up in her lap, its eyes fixed on a point behind her hidden in shadows. "Maow?"
Akari turned to look, seeing nothing of interest in a clump of ferns behind the camp wall. It's just the wind in the trees, she had figured. Mars remained unfazed, its head resting in the dirt as it dozed. Maybe it was just a wild pokémon? Akari still had time before the sun was due to set. Perhaps I can still get some more scouting in before I have to return back to Jubilife.
As soon as she had stepped away from the safety of the campfire, she had been doused with ice-cold water. Something slammed into her leg, knocking her to the ground with a fierce chitter. Rain began to pour from above. A roll of thunder shook the trees.
"Saturn! Mars!" Akari called. She howled as something sharp sliced through one of her legs.
Mars stomped into the clearing, its bright mane illuminating the ragged figure of a pokémon Akari hoped to never see again: Oshawott. The little creature looked haggard, its eyes dull and its fur torn, its pelt barely hanging onto its bony frame. But Akari recognized the look of sheer wrath in its eyes. The pokémon brandished its scalchop with fury, the shell spotted with blood.
My blood. It attacked me. "Mars, use Stomp!"
Akari's pokémon obeyed without question. Earth shattered as Mars brought a large hoof crashing into the ground a few paces away from her attacker. Oshawott fired off another Water Gun in retaliation but it immediately turned to steam as it hit Mars' coat. It tried to run, its webbed feet finding no purchase in the mud as a wave of rain pelted the forest floor but it hadn't cleared the distance in time.
Mars had been much faster than the tiny creature and had slammed its hoof into the ground again just a hair away from Oshawott's face. Sharp bits of stone embedded themselves into the creature's body. The water-pokémon looked toward Akari in rage, dodging to try to get at her, its teeth bared.
"Saturn, use Tackle!"
Saturn slammed into Oshawott and brought it down face-first into the dirt, claws sinking into its shoulder as the lithe cat-pokémon hissed into its ear.
Akari trembled, her eyes wide and her legs shaking as she stood. She felt the blood from her lacerations ooze down her leg. And when the shock of her attack had faded, it had left her with an intense feeling of calmness. With apathy. Maybe… maybe when I touched the Mind Plate earlier- maybe I saw some kind of vision of the future. Why else would Oshawott be here? Why else would the weather and the event match up so perfectly? Akari wasn't drowning. No. Akari wouldn't drown. That was because would deal with the little intrusion into her life first and foremost. To finally get rid of the creature that she didn't want nor need in her life.
"Mars, use Stomp."
This time, Oshawott did not manage to dodge the move. Saturn tossed itself to the side as Mars slammed down another one of her massive hooves, catching Oshawott by its legs. A sickening crunch echoed through the clearing. What followed was a blood-curdling screech of agony. Oshawott thrashed and tried freeing itself in a frenzy, its scalchop lying just out of reach. Blood pooled in the grass, quickly washed away as yet another wave of rain poured into the clearing.
Akari had tried releasing Oshawott. She had tried pawning it off on somebody else. She had tried convincing the creature to leave her be. Now, she would ensure that the wretched thing could never bother her again. It wasn't meant to be. At her command, Mars used Stomp again and again and again. Oshawott stopped howling after the second time; it stopped moving altogether after the fifth, all of its water moves having turned to steam or fading into the dirt. The creature's blood soaked into the earth, splattering the leaves and tree bark viciously with each new stomp. She could barely see its blackened mutilated body underneath all the loosened sod and mud. Finally, when Akari was sure that the little creature was truly and finally gone, she recalled her two partners and stared at the mangled corpse of the first pokémon she had ever received there in Hisui.
Mars had done a number on the creature. Its rib cage had completely folded inwards leaving a mess of broken ribs and crushed organs in its imprint in the dirt. Its legs or whatever had been left of them stuck out at such odd angles that Akari could see the bones snapped clean in half as they poked through the skin.
And its skull- Akari was hit with the stench the moment she had snapped herself out of her thoughts. She couldn't keep down the bile that rose in her throat, ducking behind a tree as she threw up that morning's breakfast. I didn't mean to- no, no I definitely had! Mars had completely snapped Oshawott's leg in half the first time. If she had planned on just crippling it, she would've stopped after the first Stomp.
Thunder rolled overhead. Akari dragged the broken body far away from the camp, enlisting her pokémon's help in digging a hole only to hastily toss the mangled corpse in it. She buried it as quickly as she could, covering the spot with wet leaves and snapped branches. She fervently washed her hands in the stream, thanking Arceus that none of the creature's blood had managed to make its way onto her clothes. She prayed that the coming rain would wash away the signs of the slaughter and hopefully, the reddish tint on her pokémon's coats.
Akari retreated back to her tent and waited, Saturn leaving its ball to sit in her lap as though nothing were amiss. She stared at her shaking hands and then at the plates. Did Arceus know this would happen? Or will Arecus forgive me when I make it talk to me? Akari paused. I don't need its forgiveness. I did what had to be done.