azume | Third.

Third.

ENCOUNTER 3.

Snowpoint City is small, cold, and definitely not covered in waist-high snowdrifts.

The traveling becomes far easier as soon as you enter the city limits, and the bright orange roof of the Pokémon Center is easy to spot among the white blanketing of snow dusting the ground and the local buildings; it's warm in there, and the attendants inside seem used to this sort of thing - people wandering in bedraggled and cold, unprepared for the weather and the routes leading up to this place - and they'll give you warm, fresh blankets and mugs of warm drinks that steam in your hands. The taste is difficult to place - it's definitely made of berries of some sort, though it doesn't seem to be proper tea or coffee; the point, however, is that it's good at warming you from the inside, and while it doesn't have proper medicinal properties, it'll at least perk you up a bit and make it seem like facing the rest of the day might not be so terrible.

Which is fortunate, really, given what's to come.

Come mid-afternoon, there's a loud, sharp whistle from the doorway of the Center - it's high and shrill, the sort of thing that's designed to get as much attention as possible, in as little time as possible. It'll stop before it goes on too long, but it's definitely enough to be heard, and the source isn't exactly hard to spot.

She's another one that isn't dressed like the other members of Team Galactic, her hair and outfit far different from the usual grunt attire; she seems a bit older than Saturn, her expression harder and more experienced. She's smiling a bit now that she's holding the room, but the expression is strange in that it doesn't reach her eyes, even though those are just as bright and alert as her fellow Commander's were.

It's cold. Unwelcoming. And deeply, deeply wrong in a way that's both vaguely similar and completely different to the way the emotionless people here tend to present - it's unfeeling, but in a way that's natural rather than enforced.

Dangerous.

"So you're the group that left us before I could get to know you properly," she says, and her voice is as cold as the rest of her; it's cordial, perhaps overly so, but there's a firmness to it that heavily implies that she's only being nice because she's expected to be nice. Because maybe if she's nice, this will go nice and easy and nothing will happen.

"I'm Commander Jupiter, serving Team Galactic under the orders of Master Cyrus. Sorry I couldn't meet you all properly before; things got a bit hectic. But we can change that now."

Her tone implies that that isn't a request.

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[Of course it wouldn't.]

...I want to know a lot of things.

[Same as her, he guesses.]

...why Team Galactic?

[Why did you join, he means. After all, every team he's played against...their members had their own reasons for joining. Even Deimon was like that too. And they would all eventually unite under the thirst for victory.

Is it like that for Team Galactic too?]

Because I wanted to. Master Cyrus was spreading a message, back before everything changed, and it wasn't like I was doing anything else with my life at the time.

[...Apparently it really is that simple.]

[She's been blunt up to this point, so he doesn't see why she wouldn't be now. And he's seen people join teams for less than that. And yet...it seems so incomprehensible.]

What kind of message?

[What did it sound like to a neutral observer like you, he means. It's so easy to just keep doing nothing with your life - it's safe, and it's easy, and you don't...you don't get hurt, or have to do anything scary. It's so easy that even when given the incentives to change his life, even when he had the tools this whole time...he never did, not until joining Deimon.

What kind of message would make you want to suddenly do something with your life? That's what he really wants to know.]

He was talking about changing the world. About saving people from themselves. About glory.

He told me he wanted to become a god.

[Every sentence sends a new chill down Sena's spine. Such lofty ambitions. He can kind of see how the first few can attract even the most apathetic of followers.

But...becoming a god? Who could...who would want to...]

I don't...I don't understand. Whats glorious about this? The whole point of fighting for glory is...is so people can acknowledge you, right? It's that victory you fought so hard to attain...it's meaningless if people don't...if they don't know it, right?

[That's what American Football is all about. Victory. That's all there is to it. There is nothing for the runner ups, the feeling that "we did our best, it couldn't be helped" is something of disgrace...it's all or nothing.

The fact that this small child can say such things with such conviction, even through stammering and stuttering, is...

Well, it's something.]

Isn't that what glory is? If no one understands what you've done...

[And furthermore...]

W...what about this is...s-saving people from themselves?

[There's something in her expression that's almost impressed, honestly; not in the same way as she was earlier, when he'd pointed out that she's at fault for all of this, just...legitimately impressed.]

You've got a lot of thoughts going on, don't you?

[It's not condescending; just...kind of an assessment.]

If you're going to stand up to people, do it like you mean it. You've got the words, just put some spine behind them. You'll get places.

[She shrugs, though.]

Master Cyrus believes that spirit is the root of all evil, pretty much. It leads to conflict and strife and all sorts of other things that are synonymous with "bad", and getting rid of spirit will stop people from hurting each other. That's all.

U-uh, w-well...

[He hadn't quite expected to be acknowledged like that. It's not that she's wrong either, so he ends up just looking at her as she continues to speak.]

Yeah, but...doesn't it lead to good things, too? People helping each other, working together...having goals.

[He can't help but look pensive, thinking about his life before...all of this. Everything.]

You're not really living without your spirit. You're just...there. Going through the motions. Isn't that kind of...sad?

[He winces slightly as he says the next few words, like maybe he knows he's assuming something he shouldn't. Like maybe he's going too far.]

...kind of like how you used to live? Before, uh...

[Uhm. He stops himself before he says anything else.]

...I never really considered my life sad, kid. Kind of dull, kind of pointless. But not sad.

I know Saturn was a real mess before he joined us. Mars was...probably always a mess, I don't know. But I've never been a trainwreck or anything. Never been sad or angry at the world. Just looking for a good time.

Um...it's not like I don't understand that feeling...

[After all, Sena wouldn't have called his own life bad. Just painfully average, with more bullying than most. Running errands all his life isn't really a tragic backstory, but it was...incredibly dull. Frightful, sometimes, but dull.]

...but...is this really any better?

It is for me.

[And that's...really it, isn't it.]

Tell me, kid, did you ever find your thing you like? Your thing that you get, your thing that you really, really like doing, and now that you've got it you're not too crazy about the idea of starting over and going back to that feeling you're talking about? Sure, you could, but the question is why would you?

Because that's all of this, for me.

[Everyone else is suffering, sure. But she isn't. And that's all that matters.]

[Sena's slowly changing expression as she continues to speak says it all. Of course he does. Why else would he ask Jupiter such questions?]

...Yeah.

[Somehow...he seems visibly more relaxed. As if he's figured something out, or has come to some sort of revelation. Even with his face still holding that distressed expression...he just looks...calmer.]

It's just too bad that...it's not something that can coexist with other people's dreams. But...that's a normal part of living too, I think?

[What is he getting at.]

Yeah, exactly. No matter what your dreams are, they're always going to be at the expense of someone else's.

[Hers just came at the expense of the world.]

Mm. I don't think that...that by itself is a bad thing. I mean...it's something that's true, even when the world is like...this.

[It's a balance, he guesses. In order to win, someone has to lose. He's lost enough times to know that.]

But, you know...as long as you're achieving your dream, I can't achieve mine. Neither can my friends here, or back home...or anyone else in this world. So that means...that someday, somehow...we'll end up fighting. Probably not today, but someday...and when that happens...

[He grips the pet brush a little tighter, never having really gotten anywhere with cleaning it. As if it's some sort of signal, all three of his Pokemon look at him, curious expressions on their faces (although Nin's expression is....pretty much nonexistent).]

...we'll face each other with everything that we have. It'd be an insult to do otherwise. And...

[A small smile appears on his face, the first one since this entire visit started. It's genuine, and even behind his light blue eyeshield it visibly brightens his face.]

...we'll win.

[He'd said everything quietly, but...it was firm. Not a stutter to be seen, and his eyes don't waver even when he looks back up at Jupiter.

Huh.]

[...]

Do you have a name, kid?

H-huh?

[Oh. There it is. How can he get flustered like this so easily after such a simple question...]

...Sena. Sena Kobayakawa.

All right, Sena Kobayakawa. Here's how this is going to go.

[She sounds firm, but not aggressive.]

When that day comes, and we meet on the battlefield, it's going to be your dreams against mine. And when I beat you down, you're going to look me in the eye, and you're not going to be a little crybaby about it, and you're going to take your defeat like a man. Because you get it.

And if you pull off some sort of miracle, you'd better pull off a miracle and obliterate me, because we don't do miracles halfway around here. And you're not going to feel bad about it, because that's how it's going to be.

You got it?

[Surprisingly, Sena listens to all this with an unchanging expression. Nor does he express surprise at...anything she's said.

He's staring her down with a mixture of apprehension and determination, and it doesn't break until she asks him whether he's understood. Because this is something he's done before. He's won against people far more skilled than he, far more stronger, he's made them acknowledge his prowess and crushed their dreams of victory in order to bring it to him, to his team.

So when he answers her, it's with a completely straight face that acknowledges just how daunting the vow he's about to make is...and how despite the fear, he'll still face forward.]

Of course.

[After all...if they're going up against each other with everything we have, then...feeling pity for the loser, or regret at losing...anything like that is...it's absurd, right?]

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Third.

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