Kazuki had been in the middle of his search for more pokemon when the messages arrived. After the last fight — the disastrous training session — things between him and Verai had hit a rougher patch than usual. They had not talked about it. There wasn’t much of an opportunity to do so with Verai having to prioritize his armor and Kazuki having to do— what he plans on doing, as soon as possible.

Reading the messages, Kazuki can only conclude that the man intends to disembowel him.

He grumbles under his breath, before canceling the hunt and fast-traveling to the arena.

The battlefield loads up. A star-filled indigo sky stretches infinitely above, while the ground beneath his feet becomes a deep obsidian. Unease settles when he stares at the small fissures of strange energy littered across the field, finding familiarity in how they hum, the wisps that stretch out to the air around him. He steps away from the nearest one.

He finds him on one of the cliffs. Verai looks in the middle of meditation, sitting peacefully with two cats in his lap. His armor’s pristine, the surface littered with stars.

Kazuki’s mouth twitches the longer the silence goes, hitched into a frown. He scoffs and reaches for his pockets.

“You’re a real fucking masochist, aren't you, Ver? Let’s get this over with.”

Out from two PokéBalls comes Sprigatito and Combusken, both landing quickly on the ground. Both pokemon take a moment to behold the scenery, their eyes wide. <Purrai! Kitten! Kitty!> Sprigatito cheers, about to step forwards.

“Cat, Magical Leaf. Chick, Flamethrower.” There’s the snap of him pulling his wraps securely over his hands.

Sprigatito is taken aback, both by the speed and the monotony of the order. But a battle is a battle. He does as ordered, shutting one eye and sticking out his tongue as he lines up the iridescent leaves that manifest around him, Combusken by his side glowing as she builds up her fire. He releases the MAGICAL LEAF at the opposing trio, the leaves being set ablaze by the FLAMETHROWER his teammate unleashes at the same time.

When the plumes of fire and smoke fade, Kazuki has ducked off to the side, lunging for Verai with his fist glowing in a FIRE PUNCH.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move

Despite his bitching, there really is no chance Kazuki would’ve denied the invitation. If he was a little more self-aware, he’d realize it didn’t stop at the invitation too.

The battle begins. Sprigatito puffs up proudly as his attack is called ‘cool’ only to giggle as he sees Kitten wiggling, upside-down. <You’re cool!> he says, only to realize that this is a fight and he should probably be taunting instead of cheering. <Or, um! That’s what I would say, but you’re a fire type! Not cool! Hot!> As he says it, Kitten lunges for him, her mouth filled with fire in a move that brings him back to their last battle. Sprigatito yelps and drops to the ground. The fire explodes on the obsidian behind him. <Haha! Called it!> he says triumphantly, oblivious to the little speck of ember that has caught his tail.

Combusken facepalms. She sighs, moving her attention from the two cats, only to find the pokemon she’s meant to be facing off curled up near the edge of the cliff. After a sad little cry, Kitty goes silent, leaving Combusken to wonder if she’s already drifted off to sleep. She leaps, body moving in a familiar aerial twist to aim a DOUBLE KICK but rather than hit Kitty, she aims short, slamming into the ground and causing a loud shatter that hopefully rouses her opponent.

Kazuki’s fist collides with sharp metal, slicing the thick wraps. He’s pushed down as Verai flips over him. Resisting the urge to bounce up his feet, he runs with the momentum, twisting in a low arc as the pommel slams him. It misses his spine, hitting his shoulder, the blow a low vibration in his bones. He turns, hand clamping over the crossguard to pull Verai down.

He’s acting as fast on his feet as ever, but there’s something a little different. He isn’t smiling. There’s a focused pinch between his brows. A rigidity to his movements, as if he's taking full control of his body.

“Someone’s pissy about the last fight,” he hisses between them. “Is that why you chose this shitheap for the arena? I hate it here.” An understatement. This place makes him want to crawl out of his skin.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound

Sprigatito yelps as Kitten lunges for him, bracing for the worst—but instead of being turned into burnt salad, he’s tackled to the ground and treated to the roughest brushing by Kitten’s tongue. <Ow, ow, ow,> Sprigatito says, taking damage, but upon realizing it’s not killing him, he decides to flip a little so she can get his cheek. <Ow, ow, ow.>

Combusken would call him out for goofing off, were it not for her own predicament. She had been duped! In the brief moment her attack collides, Kitty takes the opportunity to lunge, displaying her secret fighting prowess by kicking several fast-flying stones in Combusken’s way. The fighting bird clucks in panic as she tries to dodge, but the rocks hit her in several places, leaving bruises and ruffled feathers in their wake.

She turns up her beak at the little pink kitten, realizing she had been wrong to underestimate her. Now, she means business.

Combusken takes to the sky, flipping in an intricate pattern as her feathers glow and burst into fire, her FLAME CHARGE enveloping her with bedazzling ribbons of flame in different colors as she comes crashing down on Kitty.

The trainers are in a standoff. The force Kazuki exerts against Verai stutters as the man speaks. Worried. He’s worried about him. Kazuki had betrayed Verai to his face, and here he is, not even having the decency to enact brutal vengeance against him. Un-fucking-believable.

“Well, aren’t you sweet,” he says, tightly.

The sword acting as a barrier between them shifts as Verai puts his weight forwards, Kazuki baring his teeth as he resists. Kind of a bitch to do—the guy’s his size and in full-body armor. Verai answers him, and the realization that this place is randomized makes him chuckle bitterly. It means Verai hadn’t even chosen it to torment him. “Great, so it’s the game taking a piss at me.” Again. He’s losing the tug of war here and has to step back to find his balance.

And the next thing he knows, the world flips on its ass.

Kazuki curses as he slips, back and skull slamming against the obsidian, the wind knocked out of his lungs. His arms manage to brace in time, taking hold of the sword that nearly bisects his face and halting the blade inches from its target. His hands shake as they grip it, his palm bleeding and droplets plinking against his eye. But that is the least of his concerns.

The humming is right next to his ear.

His eyes widen, shooting to the side of his head, where a void crater sits. His heart rate shoots as a familiar bone-chilling sensation seeps into his bones, shadows crawling the frames of his vision as he looks up to Verai who is now too fucking close.

“Ver—Ver, get the fuck off! GET THE FUCK OFF!” He shrieks, feet slamming against the weight atop him.

PARASITE DETECTED: STAGE 1

P̶̙͛Ă̷̱R̷̭̾A̶̳͝Ș̷̐Ĭ̴͓T̶͓̾Ȅ̶̯ DETECTED: STAGE ?̶͍́?̶̫̚?̷̢͆

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body
- get blood in your eyes

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits
- bide your time

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound
- describe a visually dazzling move

Verai falls, and Kazuki can’t scramble to his feet quickly enough. His lungs feel full, his head racked with vertigo; the air he’s taking in is a thick gruel that leaves swathes of nicotine stains down his respiratory tract. It smothers him, threatening to muddle his mind, but the rapid onset of symptoms keeps him awake. He panics and tries to hold his breath, but his mouth stays open. It stays open and moves.

“Nothing.” His voice chuckles, the edges of his mouth pulling into a grin. His body uncurls to stand upright, his thumb wiping the blood spilled over his eye. He can feel the back of his hands brush across his chest, dusting his skin casually. He doesn’t see it. His eyes are set on Verai and he can’t move them away. “You just fell for the oldest trick in the book.”

Sprigatito is purring like a motor when Kitten launches her surprise attack. <OW! OWOWOW!> he says, genuinely this time, as he flails his paws at her in an attempt to defend from the relentless assault. <Kittenn! That hurt!> He whines, the tuft on his head turned into a cowlick by his friend’s good measure.

<That does it!> Now it’s his turn! He wills his rage into existence, imagining the most righteous leaf barrage—

—only for roots to sprout instead.

<Huh?> They grow and tangle themselves with his fur, lashing out like a whip to grab Kitten and fasten her to Sprigatito’s side. <Oops! Um, I didn’t mean to do that.> He looks at himself, at the creepy crawlies that have him and his friend wrapped together in a ball. <Neat! I think I learned, um… the viney move!> Now if he could just – control it.

He gnaws the roots, but they’re too thick, like a tangle in a place he can’t reach. Trying to SCRATCH his way to freedom doesn’t work either, what with his legs tied. <Sorry, Kitten...> he pouts, ears folding on his head. <I think we need to ask Purrai for help.> He has always helped when their fur gets messy. He looks to where the trainers are facing off. <Maybe we should roll to them?>

In another corner of the battlefield, Combusken chases after the bouncing ball that is Kitty, stopping when the furball gets back on her tiny paws and snarls with indignation. Combusken huffs, tilting up her beak and claws on her hips. <As if I will let you cute your way out of this!> Well, she came close. The growl was very, very cute.

<No more running! Put those nine lives to use!> Combusken slams her feet down in an intricate pattern, spinning around Kitty. As she speeds up, feathers are thrown over the kitten in a FEATHER DANCE. The dance continues – and it keeps going.

Combusken’s eyes widen as she realizes she can’t stop.

The dance ramps up until she’s nothing more than a blur of orange and yellow, the sound of her erratic movements loud and grating to the ears. It’s a jarring display to both the target and the user.

Despite the growing anomalies of his team, Kazuki appears not to notice anything amiss. His attention is solely on Verai, still smiling despite knowing the man can’t see it. He rolls his shoulders, flexes his hands and arms as if warming up.

“In all our previous arena fights, I’ve taken my sweet time with you. But I’m not patient enough to dance around this again.”

His hands curl into fists, squeezing the cuts on his palms that formed when he held the blade. Blood patters over the ground.

“Now show me what you’re really made of.”

There’s the sound of an oncoming stampede, a force that rocks the obsidian ground. The painstaking care and control Kazuki had been applying is gone; he launches at Verai in a violent rampage, the strange miasma thick as it warps around his THRASHing movements.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body
- get blood in your eyes
- use a move with over 100 base power

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits
- bide your time
- observe your environment carefully

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound
- describe a visually dazzling move
- say a one-liner as you attack

The sharp Kitten unleashes hits Sprigatito’s eardrums, and he whines, wiggling to get away, but it only rocks the tumbleweed of kittens even faster. This isn’t fun at all! (Okay, maybe a little bit, but it’s not fun if Kitten isn’t having fun.) <Too loud, Kitten!>

On the other side of the arena, the hurricane once known as Combusken is panicking. She slams her feet on the ground, tries reaching for an obsidian handhold, trying to hit that brake—but to no avail. She lets out a distressed noise as she spots Kitty, imagining a tiny puffball launched off into the abyss by her gale—and she makes a decision; if she can’t stop, she’ll just move.

In the midst of this chaos, the players fight relentlessly. Kazuki slams punches and kicks against Verai’s armor, his flames extinguished save for wisps of odorless smoke weaving along his tendons, pulled by his movements.

An ugly sneer at the sound of his name. “Shut up.” The barrage is unending, even as recoil sets with the moves chosen. He attacks as if tearing through his own body. “This is it? This is what my power is wasted on? What I grow weak for?”

He watches the shift in Verai’s face, the glaze that shadows his eyes, but his alarm goes unheard. His face does not twitch.

Not even when a blade is shoved at his head, his body ducking and stepping close. He grabs Verai’s wrist, tight as a shackle, twisting it, his other hand grabbing Verai’s jaw and yanking him down until he is looking him in the eyes, every word being planted directly into his thick skull.

“You are a disappointment, Verai. A heathen pretending to be a hero.” He chuckles, looking into the anguish that paints the man’s features, as if drinking wine. As if inhaling the scent of blood and the sound of distant screams. “And you know, don’t you?” His voice drops to whisper against his hand, where it holds Verai’s mouth shut. “That when it matters most, you can’t save the little you hold dear.”

The call for help is unheard. Sprigatito can’t see what’s happening with the trainers this far away, but what he can see is danger fast approaching. <Look out!> he squeaks, thrashing to roll their tumbleweed behind a rock as something zooms straight past them, fast enough to tear fur.

Combusken’s eyes widen, seeing endless abyss stretch before her. She’s shunted off the edge of the island, only to explode in a high-powered FLAME CHARGE, pulling off some Smash bros. shit and returning to the platform.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body
- get blood in your eyes
- use a move with over 100 base power
- use a move with recoil

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits
- bide your time
- observe your environment carefully
- take cover

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound
- describe a visually dazzling move
- say a one-liner as you attack
- pull off an unbelievable stunt

Helpless to the will of his friend, Sprigatito finds himself wheeled off a cliff, yelping as he makes a hasty landing. He’s lucky to have managed not to crush anything important—actually no, he did. It was Kitten. He rolled off, wobbling up to the wall separating them from the battlefield. <Kiiitteen…> he whines. <We can’t just stay here!> He couldn’t see over the edge, but he could hear voices. <Jump off my back! And, um, maybe… maybe throw fire at them? I dunno what’s going on, but—> his ears pressed against his head <—I think Purrai’s in trouble.>

The field had become entrenched in flame. Combusken’s attempts to brake herself have proven fruitless; FLAME CHARGES and BOUNCES combine during desperate attempts to remain inside the arena; feeding undulating ribbons of fire, penning the fighters in its center—in the eye of the firestorm. It is excruciating, yet Kazuki's body remains on its feet, uncaring of how his skin cooks under the blinding light.

Verai breaks away from Kazuki’s hand, but the other still keeps him locked in place, his voice steeped in raw panic—in grief. Through Kazuki’s eyes, there is only the sight of this present. Verai speaks, but his words make no sense.

Kazuki’s mouth opens to laugh, as if understanding completely.

“You are kicking up such a fuss in there, and he isn’t even thinking of you.”

The sobering realization that his own mouth is talking to him.

“Pheasant, is it? How nice.” The word is thrown and spat. “Must have been quite the catch. He already makes for a pretty corpse.”

What the hell are you talking about? His thoughts scream, thrashing against the walls. Get the fuck away from him!

“So noisy,” his voice scoffs. “I am just looking for answers.” His hand grabs Verai by the jaw, his eyes squinting as if looking through the man’s very being. It’s with such a casual cruelty—as if inspecting a piece of pottery for cracks, prepared to break it on the ground if it fails to meet a criteria.

“Calm yourself.” It is still talking to him. Isn’t it? “You will enjoy this.”

The scream of his thoughts reach a deafening crescendo as his body leans down, shattering the narrative with his lips.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body
- get blood in your eyes
- use a move with over 100 base power
- use a move with recoil
- fight through the pain

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits
- bide your time
- observe your environment carefully
- take cover
- take damage from falling

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound
- describe a visually dazzling move
- say a one-liner as you attack
- pull off an unbelievable stunt
- combine one or two moves for additional effect

It is all so laughably easy. A simple distraction, and he was down. Armor on a weak man is nothing more than a flimsy blanket—comfort for the mind, dressing for a body. The mist is not picky; it seeps in and begins taking the shape of Verai’s lungs, wisps lashing over the cage of his heart, promising respite. Promising eternity.

Only for them to be pulled, yanked by a rush of fresh air as Kazuki leans back, hissing at something sinking deep into the flesh and bone of his calf.

“You—” the voice is guttural, dark mist dribbling out of his mouth, his nose, even the gaps in his eyes. The thing in Kazuki’s skin bared down at Kitty as if she were a blight upon life itself, one hand prying its claws out of Verai as it draws back to grab the pest.

<EVERYBODY!> Sprigatito yells, managing to wiggle-jump his way up the ledge, and is now charging into battle, screaming at the top of his lungs. <SAVE PURRAI!>

He had joined this battle hoping to have fun—but this wasn’t fun anymore! He hates the idea of attacking his trainer, but the look on his face isn’t Kazuki. He knows his trainer’s mean look better than anyone, and that isn’t it!

He summons another round of MAGICAL LEAF, aiming the glowing bullets at Kazuki’s eyes. His trainer hisses, drawing one arm to shield himself, the leaves sinking into inked flesh.

Insufferable. The urge to fight back is immediate; he’s going to rip them to shreds. He’s going to—

A roaring fireball comes hurtling down from the heavens, Combusken’s kick slamming straight into Kazuki’s side and wrenching away the last hold he has on Verai.

As he topples back, Kazuki can hear, in the back of his head—laughter. Mocking, loud, grating—

FUCK ME UP! It cries in triumph as his Pokemon turn against him.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Prompts}

Kazuki (Player)
- get a running start
- take a hit on a non-essential part of your body
- get blood in your eyes
- use a move with over 100 base power
- use a move with recoil
- fight through the pain
- create a distraction

Sprigatito
- carefully line up a precision shot
- anticipate a move before it hits
- bide your time
- observe your environment carefully
- take cover
- take damage from falling
- try to blind your opponent

Combusken
- use a fire or electric-type move
- create a loud sound
- describe a visually dazzling move
- say a one-liner as you attack
- pull off an unbelievable stunt
- combine one or two moves for additional effect
- act without orders