Pokémon Chronicles 零 (ZERO)

Episode 35: To the final trial! Mimia's warning

Art credit: NaivEevee

...

"Okay, you've been quiet enough. What's the big deal with the urgency?" Megan spoke up, breaking a full few minutes of silence. No one had said a word since stepping back out into the city, even though we were supposed to be looking for a place to sleep tonight. "I'm sure none of us here are comfortable with you working with the bestia trio."

"That's why it's up to you guys to hurry. I know I haven't been the nicest to you guys, or said the nicest things about the bestia issue... but I'm counting on you, now," Azu replied with a sigh.

"We're not mad at you, you know. I just kind of want to know why," Lucca added. Azu stopped walking and stared at him for a moment. "I think for the first time since I've known you, you're actually unnerved about something. That's definitely worrying to me."

"Both of you have been acting really worrying. Lucca, you're not exactly off the hook for that fake kidnapping, you know," Brine pointed out. Mimia barked at her.

"That... was just desperation on my part. I really, really want to finish this quest. I guess now that I'm seeing someone else I care about look that desperate, I'm worried," he admitted with a cheeky smile, scratching the back of his head. Azu suddenly silenced all of us by wrapping an arm around the back of his head, pulling him into a close kiss with her.

"U-um?" Megan responded with a flinch. My eyes were widened too, but unsurprisingly, Lucca accepted the kiss until she detached from him, and stared back at her for another moment.

"... Why?" he eventually uttered.

"We're either going to die here or a miracle's going to happen. May as well give you a little reward while I still can," she breathed out.

"Now you hold on just a second. Reward? I never asked for a reward when I offered to help protect you," he argued. "And a kiss, of all things..."

"Does that mean I shouldn't give you one whatsoever? You weren't exactly very quick to tell me that," she sighed. "Listen you guys... I never accounted for this, but this region, Vilé, is now guaranteed for destruction. We can't save it."

"Hey, what's with that attitude? It's our job to save this place, why can't we?" Megan challenged. "Seriously, it's like you're trying to sound all meaningful or something, but you're actually just being even more of a jerk right now!"

"...The tectonic plate here is beyond repair. Even if the black sand hardened, it would fall into the planet, destroying this whole region," Azu explained, ignoring her. "Think of the planet as sort of like a puzzle... the pieces are all the islands. Mainland Heroica is made up of many different pieces. At the moment, they're all fitted together perfectly, but when the black sand gets in between those pieces, they loosen..."

"... And loose puzzle pieces can't stick together properly?" I finished for her. She reluctantly nodded, holding her staff out to me. I had forgotten that she had changed it to the generic fairy wand shape.

"And if you try to dry those pieces, they worsen, don't they... their shape changes, and they no longer fit into place," she added. "Even if you restored the bestia, the black sand and this island would remain where it is, half sunk into the planet... if gravity doesn't finish it off, then Mother Bun's incessant bestia wasting will just make it happen. It's likely to happen while we're still here."

"Whether that happens or not, you're not going to die because of it. Don't start talking like you are," Lucca promised. "I care about you too much to let something like that happen. If you perish, I'd have failed at doing what I've spent my life working towards."