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You
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I knew it from the start. I was never supposed to be here in the first place anyway, so why am I so sad? I knew exactly how this world works. You're a fighter, and you have no other focus except fight. There's no need for hunger, or feelings, or anything else. Just battle. It was only in the case of the invasion of subspace I got to witness these fighters have feelings. If you lose, you get turned into a trophy. And that was kind of like dying, in a way. When you're a trophy, all you can do is dream of endless battle. That's the rules of this world. And when someone breaks those sacred rules, only bad things can happen.
Behind me were the trophies of... well, everyone. And I do mean everyone. Not a single fighter was moving. They were all "asleep", their dreams collectively linked into one. It was like they could hear each other fighting... but nothing from outside. It just wasn't needed.
...I was alone. No one except me, and the frozen statues of all the fighters, all of the characters, all of the heroes and villains who exist solely to battle. I knew it was wrong to want something different than that, to wish to disrupt that natural cycle of battle... to want the rules to once again be broken... but I just can't help but hurt inside.
I knew I shouldn't have become so attached... but I suppose I don't have control over that. It's in my nature, the same way it is for the fighters to, well... fight. The weight of my own tears forced me onto my knees, pinning me down. It hurt.
...Kirby might have been my best friend. No... he WAS. And that was before I even got here in the first place. He got me through some of the hardest times in my life. There was this certain charm about the character... that brings a smile to almost anyone's face just by looking at him. Back in the real world, life was hard. I had so many tough moments in my life. The majority of it was miserable, but imagining the pink creature next to me made it all the less painful. I didn't even realize it, but I loved him... in a platonic way, of course. When I first came here, I was overjoyed to meet him... physically. Little did I know, he was subject to becoming trophified just like every other fighter.
Seeing him frozen like that... you probably would have guessed by now, but it shattered my already vulnerable heart into millions of pieces. It was like watching a close friend die. He too, was trapped in the dream of eternal combat... and the worst part is that was only natural.
Slowly, I trudged over to Kirby's trophy, and then I laid down, resting my head on the pedestal. My tears fall onto the golden podium, laced with hopelessness and despair.
My arms wrapped around Kirby's foot, my head pushed tight against the statue. It hurt like never before. It felt like so many hopes and dreams had been crushed all at once, like just imagining he was there next to me no longer had any effect in helping me. I needed him physically here with me, now that I knew he existed. I wanted him back, with all of my other friends.
But most of all, I wanted HIM back.
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Third Person
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Battle. It's all he knows. He exists for one reason here: To fight. In his vision, he sees himself fighting all of the other fighters, playing on endless loop in his mind. His soul floats in an empty, black void. There simply was nothing else he needed to worry about. It just didn't matter. There was nothing else... until there was.
He felt something near his foot. It felt wet, but also warm. For as long as the tear stayed on his foot, he heard another voice. It sounded like... crying?
The voice disappeared once the warm droplet of water fell off his foot. Then, he felt another. And another. The cries continue. In his head, his dream starts to become fuzzy, almost like a static TV. Something else, an unknown and new sensation was pushing its way into his void.
The sound was oddly... unnerving. He wanted it to stop, to go back to his peaceful dream. Inflicting pain is all he knows, and ever will.
The crying returned, this time even more present. An unfamiliar feeling washed over the body of Kirby's soul... This was strange. Then it hit him. It wasn't physical pain. It was a different kind of pain. Emotional. He never had any experience with this. How did crying tie into this pain? He could only wonder... he knew he was powerless to act, that the question was just a fleeting feeling. His utmost priority, his sole reason for existing, is to fight.
But there was an itch. A small sense of longing to find answers. But as it seemed, those answers were being delivered right to him. He... recognized the voice, somehow. He remembered an outsider he never realized he took a liking to. Was it them? Was it that person?
They sounded so... sad. Like they were in pain. Like they were hurting. Kirby knew they weren’t one of them, a fighter. They weren't a trophy... They were just a regular person, a spectator, free to walk the earth, unlike them.
Unlike them...
Kirby began to gain a sense of self-awareness. Was this really what he wanted to be doing for eternity? Fighting? Or did he want to spend time with the ones he loved? A conflict boiled in his very soul. Was he really going to do it? Was he going to break the rules of the world of trophies? Was he going to risk chaos and imbalance over a single person?
Kirby knew it was a bad idea. But sometimes, bad ideas are the right ideas, maybe sometimes even the only ideas available. What even was the point of endless battle anyways? Why was it the only thing he ever knew? It wasn't fair, and he knew that... or at least, only just now did he realize that.
He does something he feared he would regret doing...
and snapped out of the dream.
When Kirby opened his eyes, he was floating in a black void. There was nothing there, except him, and the warm feeling he felt. He looked down.
It was a tear. A singular, warm tear, on his foot. Kirby inspected it, recognizing it as a symbol of inner pain. The sounds of crying began to grow louder, and more clear. Someone was hurting. He had to do something. He had to ACT. He could almost feel the hopelessness, the sadness and the loneliness mirrored from the owner of the tear.
It hurt. It hurt so much. He wanted to do something about it. Do whatever it takes to save that person from this horrible, heartbreaking feeling. For the first time ever, he cared about something besides battle. The itch turns into an urge. That urge evolved into longing. That longing evolved into undeniable instinct. He couldn't ignore it any longer. That instinct was beginning to overpower his ability to think rationally. It began to take over his thoughts, overwhelming the pink creature with uncomfortable thoughts that could only go away if he did something.
If he helped.
He shouldn't be cursed to remain frozen like this.
He should be moving.
Alive.
That word echoed in his head. Alive. He wanted to walk freely.
This whole time, he had been tricked into believing that combat was the ONLY means of achieving peace. What a fool he was to ever believe that. There were things beyond battle that he could let himself become intrigued by. He had so much ahead of him. There was only one thing stopping him now.
A bright, shining light appeared above Kirby. Using as much willpower as he can muster, he swims through the void, getting closer to the light.
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You
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A sound emanated from the trophy. It sounded like... light. And light doesn't even have a sound. Then, I SAW light. It was coming from Kirby's trophy. It gets brighter, and brighter, and brighter, almost blindingly so. It took away my ability to see temporarily, as I covered my eyes with my hand. The light faded...
And then, only then...
did I feel something touch me.
I heard a soft whimper. I looked down. I couldn't believe my eyes. This shouldn't be possible... it shouldn't even be happening at all, and yet, it was.
Kirby was there, hugging my knee, making a soft sound, staring up at me with a pair of worried little eyes. I felt myself shaking. Shivering. Instinctively, I grab Kirby off the ground and pull him as tight as possible into my chest.
Somehow, he heard me. He knew I was there, and he gained the strength, the willpower to come back to life. I burst into tears, and in response, he nuzzled against me. I felt weak and vulnerable inside, like a fragile glass about to fall off a table and shatter. Kirby buried his little head in my chest.
He was really doing it. He was prioritizing something above battle. It was like he was asking me to stop crying. And I knew even that would be difficult at this moment... but I still appreciated it.
I hugged him tighter. A wave of bright light, emanated from him, as well as me. The wave of light touched every other trophy, slowly freeing everyone from their comatose-like state. If being turned into a trophy was like death, I had just resurrected everyone.
It was a sight to behold, seeing me and Kirby embrace each other. Seeing him go as far as to comfort me... it only felt right, and no one had ever stopped to think about that.
As of today, there was now room for things beyond battle. Sure, it would still happen frequently, but today, everyone was free to have... desires. Or really, just to be free, in general.
He was back. I was a savior. I felt like a messiah, one who was sent down by the heavens called "the real world", to save everyone.
I remember in the main theme it said something about "hearing legends of that person". Was I "that person"?
I did plunge into enemy territory. I saved my homeland, but I also reduced it to rubble. Revered, because I brought freedom. Feared, for the same reason.
Now, I stand by everyone's side...
and my friends were with me once more.