Chapter Text
With the frenzied nobles quelled and space-time rift in the sky gone at last, Hisui is at a time of peace. Celebrations have occurred and relations between the settlements have become friendly – all thanks to one determined child. Everything is settling down, and even the wild pokemon appear less and less aggressive as the days go by.
It's a seemingly normal day when Warden Ingo is travelling to the Pearl Settlement when he notices Akari sprinting full speed ahead across the icelands. It has been a while since he’s seen her, considering the last time they spoke was at the festival in Jubilife Village. The warden finds it curious that Akari isn’t being chased by anything in particular and yet she’s running with such urgency as though she has an alpha pokemon on her tail. Such behaviour is most likely indicative of some kind of an emergency and so it’s only right that Ingo provides his assistance.
“Akari!” he calls out, the sound bouncing off the nearby cliffs and startling the local pokemon dozing off in the sunny weather. However, the girl doesn’t show any signs of having heard his impressive volume and continues down her tracks. Odd…and also very concerning.
Striding after her, he calls a second time to which Akari seemingly slows down for a moment and briefly glances behind her, allowing the warden to catch the worried look on her face. Reminded of cruel banishment, shaky confessions and silent tears under a bleeding sky, Ingo knows that he ought to do whatever he can to help and hastens his pace.
“Akari! What has happened? Do you require assistance?”
Without stopping for even a moment or turning around to face him, she yells out as she runs,
“I’m late!”
That's certainly a response he was not expecting.
"Late? Late for what?!"
Even after shouting out an inquiry, Akari doesn’t respond to anything else, weaving through the terrain and swerving past pokemon towards her destination with such efficiency that even Ingo has difficulty keeping up. After continuing the pursuit for a while, the warden notices that they are fast approaching the rougher terrain of the icelands. Definitely not safe for travelling at such speeds.
Then all of a sudden, Akari simply disappears from view, dropping into a hole in the ground without even a sound indicating her fall. Ingo yells out, fearing for her safety as he follows the tracks down into the tunnel… except he quickly finds out that it isn’t quite a normal tunnel.
A swirling cacophony of deep colours envelops Ingo, warping energies obscuring his vision while he continues falling into the distortion.
Down, down, down he goes, shouting as loud as he can into the void but not hearing a single thing. Akari is nowhere to be found and it only increases the warden’s sense of panic.
He feels like he is being pressed together, but also torn apart. He feels a strange coldness, but also a scorching heat. He feels completely nothing, but also absolutely everything.
...And although he doesn’t quite remember, Ingo also feels as though these sensations are ones that he’s felt before. Ones that he definitely does not want to feel ever again.
Within the span of a nanosecond to a millennia, Ingo is falling, and then he isn’t.
Wherever he is now, it is dark, but also bright.