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Ingo was bored.
He and Emmet had a rare day off between work at the station and school. They were planning on spending it hanging out around the apartment, maybe finally unpack those last couple of boxes that had been sitting in the living room for almost six months now, but Elesa had also managed to snag the day off.
Elesa was cool. She was an up-and-coming model and wanted to work in a Gym too, hopefully becoming a Gym Leader one day. Big goals, but the twins could admire that, wanting to work at the Battle Subway that opened a few years back. They didn’t hire often and it was highly competitive to even be considered, but at least Ingo and Emmet had managed to get a couple jobs in the regular Subway.
Anyway, the twins had met Elesa near the start of the year when they all wound up in the competitive battling club and hit it off quickly. Ingo and Elesa’s shared enjoyment of puns, Emmet and Elesa’s preference of electric types, and a mutual love of battling had really sealed the friendship. Now, they tried to spend whatever free time they could together, whether it was on campus or off.
Today, Elesa had asked them if they wanted to get Casteliacones and hang out. Ingo and Emmet were quick to agree. The boxes were never really part of the schedule, and besides, they weren’t renewing their lease, instead planning to find a place to split with Elesa so she could finally get out of the dorms next year. At this point they would just need to repack the boxes not long after emptying them.
They met up at Gear Station, took the subway down to Castelia City, and stood in line for way too long. Ingo always forgot how long the lines for these things could get. Despite the wait, they managed to snag enough cones for themselves and the few Pokemon who wanted one, then went to a nearby park to eat and let their Pokemon blow off some steam.
But that had been over an hour ago. Now, Ingo was bored, the Pokemon showed no signs of slowing down, and the cones were long gone. The other two had started doing their own things, Elesa scrolling through some social media site and Emmet pulling out the book he had started the other day. Ingo didn’t usually mind, their hang outs tended to end up like this after a while, but he had forgotten to actually bring something to the park.
He supposed he could do something on his Xtrans, but the screen was hard to see outside and he didn’t like dealing with that. Maybe hang out with the Pokemon? He looked over only to see that the group had formed their own game of what looked like tag but with more moves aimed at each other. Maybe not. He already got zapped enough by the Joltiks Emmet had started breeding. How his brother could stand it was beyond him. He probably got zapped by Eelektross enough growing up to get nerve damage or something. Not that Ingo could call him out on that, choosing a soul eating ghost as his starter.
With nothing else to do, Ingo ended up laying on his back and staring at the sky through the leaves of the tree they sat under.
That lasted about ten minutes before he poked Emmet in the thigh until he looked over.
“Yes?” he asked.
“I’m bored,” Ingo said, still poking his brother. “I forgot to bring something from home. Do you have anything else?”
Emmet put his book down and rifled through his bag. “Uhhhh, nope! Sorry.”
Ingo groaned, looking back to the sky.
“I do have an idea though,” Emmet said. “You will need to sit up.”
“I’ll take it. I’m so bored, I will do literally anything,” Ingo said, pulling himself up and facing Emmet. Emmet had his hands in fist in front of him, the backs facing the sky.
Ingo immediately knew what he was suggesting.
“Emmet, we have work tomorrow.”
“Come on, Ingo. You just said that you would do ‘literally anything’. Afraid you will lose?”
“I don’t care what I said. I am not playing Bloody Knuckles.”
That got Elesa’s attention. “What’s Bloody Knuckles?”
“A game we used to play as kids,” Ingo explained. “You haven’t heard of it?”
“She grew up in the city, remember?” Emmet said with a teasing smile, “She had better things to do.”
“Oh yes, that’s right,” Ingo said, corners of his mouth flicking upwards, “She could go to the mall.”
“Or the movies.”
“Or the subway.”
“Yet she didn’t ride the trains all day.”
“Not even for us.”
Elesa lightly punched each of them in the arm with a laugh. “I didn’t even know you guys as kids.”
“Hardly an excuse,” they said together.
Elesa laughed again, “Whatever, just tell me how to play.” She held her fists out like Emmet’s and shuffled closer.
Emmet paused for a moment before saying, “I think your agent would kill us if we let you play.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Elesa said, moving her fists closer, “C’mon, what’re the rules?”
Ingo finally caved, knowing Elesa would keep bugging about it and her agent probably would yell at them if she played. “Well, I guess gloves are part of the uniform,” he mumbled.
Emmet turned back to him, grinning. “So, you’ll play?”
“If only to demonstrate the game to Elesa,” Ingo said, placing a fist on his open palm, “Rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first?”
Emmet copied Ingo. “Yup. On scissors?”
“As always.”
After a quick two out of three that Emmet won, their game could begin. Ingo held his fists out and braced himself.
“The game is simple,” Emmet explained, bringing his own fists up, “One person holds their hands out and the other hits them.”
“Hits them?” Elesa asked just as Emmet brought his fist down fast.
He hit Ingo’s knuckles with a loud crack and a familiar, sharp pain. He winced and shook his hands out as Emmet placed his fists in position.
Elesa’s mouth hung open. Ingo swung his fists down onto Emmet’s.
“Wait, no, stop!” Elesa cried, pausing Emmet before he swung again. “What are you doing?”
“Playing Bloody Knuckles,” Emmet said matter-of-factly.
“This is why-” Emmet’s swing cut Ingo off for a moment. “-we thought you shouldn’t join in.”
“It ends when someone draws blood.” Ingo swung too late to cut him off too.
Elesa watched them go back and forth a couple more times in shock. “How is there a winner in this? You both get hurt.”
“The pain is part of the game,” Ingo explained with another swing, “and there is not so much a win state as there is a lose state.”
“The loser is the one bleeding,” Emmet said, swinging back.
“And you did this for fun?” Elesa asked.
“Yup!” Emmet said, “It is verrrry easy to get bored when you live in the middle of nowhere.”
Thwack!
“And you get grounded from Pokemon battles after wrecking the backyard.”
Thwack!
“And they ban you from the railyard for sneaking in too much.”
Thwack!
“And your parents kick you outside after playing RollerCoaster Tycoon on the family computer for four hours straight.”
Thwack!
Elesa watched them exchange hits, her face a mix of concern and morbid curiosity. “I think I’m glad I grew up in the city.”
It wasn’t much longer before Emmet called, “Time! I am bleeding.”
“Ha!” Ingo yelled, pointing at Emmet as he held the back of his hand to his mouth, “I win!”
Emmet pulled his knuckle out of his mouth to investigate it. “Yeah, yeah. I will win next time.”
“Do you need a bandage?” Elesa asked.
“I don’t think so,” Emmet said, returning the knuckle to his mouth.
“Are you sure?” Ingo asked, looking through his bag. “I don’t think I have any, but there is a PokeCenter not that far from here.”
Emmet held his hand back down. Ingo and Elesa crowded in to look. The bleeding hadn’t stopped or even slowed.
“Emmet, you need a bandage,” Elesa said.
“I agree,” Ingo said.
“Yup, you got me good,” Emmet said. “I will be back.”
“Don’t die,” Ingo laughed as Emmet walked off, knuckle in his mouth again. Emmet flipped him off with his free hand, causing Ingo to laugh harder.
“I still can’t believe you two did that for fun as kids,” Elesa sighed as Ingo massaged his knuckles. He may have won, but his knuckles would be bruised badly by tomorrow. They were already starting to darken now.
“We haven’t even told you about the coin version of the game,” Ingo said with a small smile, “I think I have heard of a variation that gives you the chance to not get hurt, but we never played with it. That version was a rare game though. We needed a table for it and our parents hated it. There was also five star and five fingers but with a stick or the eraser end of a pencil.”
Ingo couldn’t help but double over with laughter at the horrified face Elesa made.
-----
The memory faded, most of the details blurring and retreating back to wherever Ingo’s old memories lived. Nothing much more than the feelings of hanging out with loved ones and playing dumb games with them remained.
But there was one thing that didn’t dull or flee. No, it stayed crisp and clear in the front of Ingo’s mind.
And it was such a slow day at the Training Grounds.
“Hey, Zisu,” Ingo said, turning to face her with his fists held in font of him, the backs facing the sky, “have you ever heard of the game Bloody Knuckles?”