Each Past 「Pokemon Watty Awards 2016」

Chapter 19 ♦ Present

❝ Why?

When the most important things hang

in the balance

why do they disappear?

Is this punishment from the heavens? ❞

Darkrai

I could tell that Arceus was getting impatient, and I would be shameless to say that I was pleased with the Lord's mood—others would call me sadistic for this sort of thing, but I was used to that, and thus flashed an open smirk at the agitated Pokemon next to me.

"It seems that even creatures like you get angered." My voice was slow; smooth, and the Creator was in too much of a flustered mood to mask his shock. He was tense—I could see that in every muscle of his body. "Well, this is a rather rare occurrence, is it not?"

My partner took a deep breath, his emerald—I had never known how to describe his eyes; would they be named after the green sclera or the crimson irises?—glittering in agitation as he wheeled around to face me.

"I would appreciate it if you do not speak to me like that," he breathed—his voice was tight, controlled, and on the verge of exploding any moment—in all honesty, it bordered on the edge of hilarious, and I indulged in it with every bit of pride I could muster. "I am stressed enough as it is."

A sharp laugh escaped my mouth before I knew it—and I was about to bite back with a retort, but the beast interrupted me, his tone low and cross as he spoke. "I thought you had something to do," Arceus muttered. "You told me that you were going to pay Cresselia a visit, did you not?"

With a sly smile through the wispy shadows of my jaw, I spun around to turn away from the Creator. "Relax. I will be going soon," I replied. "Besides, I am your ally for now. Do not treat me as if I am an enemy."

I did not expect to hear a resigned sigh, but I guessed that life was always full of surprises, and I settled for raising an eyebrow at Arceus' vexed expression. "I apologise." His voice was low; jaded, and filled with so much sorrow—such an overwhelming sadness was kneaded through his slouched frame, and all thoughts of mock hostility vanished from my mind for a short moment. "I will treat you as such in future conversations."

For some strange reason—who knows? Maybe the Lord had affected me with his preaching of justice around the world—I felt compelled to comfort the god beside me, and I did nothing but scoff at his apologetic demeanour.

"How unbefitting of a deity." A smirk ran across my face—it was the one way I knew how to even 'comfort' others, and I refused to those flowery norms of society—if I was to make someone feel better, then I would do it my way. "You do know that you cannot do anything about this, so at least stop panicking. Just let Fate play its own course out."

And with that, I turned with a slight huff—and before Arceus could speak once more, I was already gone.

༺༻

As usual, I hid in the shadows—I knew it was pretty useless; that it would be a matter of time before Cresselia discovered me, but there was no particular reason as to why I had done this. Was it because this was fun? Because these actions were nothing more than a game to me?

I blended in with the crawling darkness that came as a natural result of simple physics—one would say that, but wasn't Arceus the one who had created the very existence of physics?—and it was laughable how easy the shadows—almost as if I was the darkness itself.