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Part 4 - You Are Worth Everything

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"HEY, YEEEAAAAAAH!"

The battle cry, however, didn't come from Amy. It came from Jukidoor as he raced forward to meet Kaigen with a Double Team.

The plan that Amy, Ryoshi, and Jukidoor had agreed on beforehand was mainly one of distraction as a counter to the sheer power that was evident on the rocky body of the Aggron before them. That Amy would be the one who seemed to be in charge, and then strike with Jukidoor. Furthermore, they needed to be able to learn Kaigen's attack pattern without taking too much damage themselves; so Amy reluctantly but eventually agreed to just hang back and provide backup in the meantime.

As the Clefable whizzed from side to side in front of the towering Kaigen, seemingly daring the Aggron to hit him, Amy's eyes were on Kaigen the whole time. She wouldn't be able to use Psychic on her father's massive bulk, so if Kaigen attacked at that range, well then, Jukidoor would have to deal with it somehow. What was most important to her was to protect herself and Ryoshi from Kaigen's devastating attacks at all costs.

The Aggron growled loudly. It was at most an inconvenience to keep tabs on three foes at once, but with this stupid Clefable somehow cloning himself into so many copies, it was downright aggravating.

"Stand still, ya' fat fairy!" Kaigen reared a fist back, the metal encasing his hand suddenly surging in electricity. He smashed the fist through one of the Jukidoors, only for it to whiff away, leaving his fist to impact a small crater into the ground where it stood. Kaigen let out another mighty roar before he started to wildly swing at the other projections.

The real Jukidoor weaved through his own projections, analyzing the speed and timing in which Kaigen swung those Thunderpunches. When he dodged a punch where he was certain he'd have the maximum amount of time for Kaigen to re-aim, he quickly stopped and jabbed the Aggron in the heart with two fingers on both of his hands like anachronistic Tasers, sending a Thunder Wave coursing through his body, paralyzing him and severely reducing his movement speed. "Sure, why not?"

Then he resumed Double Teaming again, seeking to become even faster than before. "Just kidding!"

Kaigen growled through gritted teeth. He tried to shrug off the electricity pulsing through this body and interfering with his muscles as best he could, and while the drop in his speed wasn't a terribly large one given his already normally slower speed, it still pushed his anger higher. The Aggron reared back for another series of punches when the steely blade of Ryoshi's sword bashed into his gut.

Ryoshi and his sword were practically died blue in color, and it was almost immediately apparent that the Mawile had been utilizing the time Jukidoor had bought with his diversion tactics to set up several Sword Dances. Kaigen doubled over slightly from the blow, and Ryoshi continued to bash various places all around the Aggron's heavily armored body with his large blade.

The impacts made a horribly loud clang on every blow, and practically all of them resulted in the sword bouncing right off, but Ryoshi kept at it. He knew the blows weren't making hardly any kind of impact, but dealing damage wasn't the plan at the moment. By striking nearly every part of the Aggron's armor, he could judge which portions were the weakest by how harshly they reacted to the clashing steel.

Finally, Kaigen managed to fully recover, and he was now more aggravated with Ryoshi than Jukidoor. The Aggron grabbed the blade as the Mawile took his next swing and ripped it from his grasp, easily tossing it a great distance always like a common stick.

SLAP!

Jukidoor wasted no time immediately leaping up to use Wake-Up Slap harshly on the tall Aggron's face. "Hey! Where do you think YOU'RE looking?" he said, glaring, before then continuing his Double Team barrage.

Meanwhile, Amy gasped as Ryoshi lost his sword. Should she use Psychic to bring the sword back to him? Then again, the sword seemed like it was more a hindrance than a help against someone like Kaigen. Besides, it was better to not let Kaigen know she knew a useful move like that until it was absolutely necessary. Save it for when Ryoshi himself was in danger. That reminded her…when was he going to use Focus Blast, anyway? She sure hoped it was soon. At least her dad was being much more useful than she had anticipated. She turned her focus to Ryoshi, continuing to watch him like a hawk.

That was a good enough action to bring Kaigen's attention back to the Clefable. He had about enough of his Double Team-spamming, slap-happy antics. The metal of his dense tail began to shine a metallic silver, and in a sweeping manner, he swung it through the entire line of clones, eventually hitting the actual Jukidoor and knocking him away.

But Kaigen didn't get any time to celebrate, as Ryoshi was set into full on attack mode. Without his sword, he switched to the next tactic: Firing volleys upon volleys of Focus Blasts at the Aggron's weaker points of armor. Namely, his underbelly and neck area.

As hard as Kaigen's biological metal armor was, it did very little to withstand such a powerful special attack, especially a Fighting-type one like that. Every blow caused a roar of pain to bellow from his throat. Angry and needing to get the Mawile away, Kaigen attempted to deliver a mighty Stomp on the small Pokémon’s head, which Ryoshi barely managed to roll out of the way of.

"DAD!"

The impact of Kaigen's Iron Tail had sent Jukidoor crashing into a nearby tree, causing the large fairy to fall to the ground. "I...I'm okay!" he said, holding up a finger. "Just forgot about the guy's tail, that's all..."

As the large fairy struggled to get up and distract Kaigen again, Amy quickly turned her attention to Ryoshi. Crap! She had let herself get distracted and Ryoshi nearly got stomped on. Well, at least he rolled out of the way, and the attack wasn't nearly as bad as it would be if Kaigen used Head Smash. Yikes, Head Smash...

On the other hand, her dad helped paralyze Kaigen, and she was already learning how he attacked. All he needed to use now was Head Smash and she'd know everything. Though what worried her was how angry Kaigen was getting and how he didn't seem to be slowing down. Ryoshi's Focus Blasts seemed to be helped out with that, though. Such an attack alone was their ace in the hole, and if it didn't help, than nothing would.

Ryoshi quickly leapt back to his feet and leapt back a few feet to put some distance between himself and the Aggron. He didn't need to be real close to fire more Focus Blasts, and that's exactly what he started to do once more. He needed to pick up the firepower that had been lost by Jukidoor's temporary exclusion.

The more of the attacks that hit, the angrier Kaigen appeared to get. He knew that as strong as he was, if he took enough damage like this he'd be down in no time. He batted away a sphere of energy with the back of his hand before rearing his entire body back.

Amy saw what he was doing and knew what was about to come, so she engulfed him with Psychic and yanked him back towards her just in time for the Aggron to crash his head into the ground at full power.

Ryoshi was set down next to the Jigglypuff, and he blinked at her. "Thanks," he stated as the Aggron quickly pulled his head out from the hole in the ground his attack had created and darted around, looking for where his foe had gone. "Unfortunately, his Rock Head ability is going to mean he didn't hurt himself in the slightest doing that."

"Not that I expected it to, with a head like his," she muttered bitterly. "Man, isn't there any way to make this guy slow down? I thought my dad paralyzed him!"

"Maybe he just needs one more shot," replied Jukidoor as he pushed himself up before rushing Kaigen once more.

But he wasn’t fast enough.

Kaigen leered around until he finally found Ryoshi a ways back with the tiny Jigglypuff. How he had gotten all the way back there so suddenly, he had no idea, but he could bet it had something to do with that Jigglypuff. He hadn't been paying enough attention to her.

Kaigen stamped his foot hard into the ground and let out a booming roar before charging on head-first at the two. Ryoshi jumped onto his feet once again and got into a fighting stance. "Be ready Amy, here he comes!"

She simply glared at the charging Aggron in response, with her arms out, as if she was preparing to catch him and throw him aside despite his massive size.

Under normal circumstances, Amy would have been absolutely terrified at the sight. But this wasn't normal circumstances. She figured that sooner or later, this would happen during the battle, and she had been preparing herself for it the whole time.

By now, she had already learned his movement speed and could calculate exactly when he'd arrive. It was pretty clear that he was going in for a Head Smash. Closer...closer...

Now!

When he was close enough so that she was certain that he wouldn't be able to respond in time, she leapt to the right, using Psychic and her Shifting Scale to boost her movement speed and dodge the incredibly large Aggron, causing him to plow his head into the ground right where she was and miss. She then landed right next to his legs and starting smashing them with repeated uses of Brick Break and Drain Punch as fast as she could, with her Black Scale augmenting her attacks.

Ryoshi jumped out of the way as well, landing on the opposite side and began to fire off more rounds of Focus Blasts. Kaigen let out a deep, rumbling growl in response to the pummeling he was receiving. He tried to get back on his feet, but the Jigglypuff's surprisingly powerful punches were putting his legs in too much pain to accomplish that.

He took a violent swing at Amy with an Iron Tail, but she quickly ducked under the swing and resumed her punching. He reared back another Thunderpunch... before whipping around and delivering the blow to Ryoshi's chest. The electricity itself wasn't very effective at penetrating his skin, but the punch itself was enough to rocket the Mawile backwards, where he collided against Jukidoor and knocked them both to the ground.

Any sense of strategy that was in Amy's mind suddenly went out the window  as she saw her boyfriend get smashed and crash right into her father. That was it. She had to end this NOW.

She let out a loud scream as she leapt to Kaigen's face like a cat pouncing upon its prey, blasting him in the face with a Hyper Voice before landing on it and really letting loose a flurry of Brick Break attacks, fully intent on crushing his head. If she WAS thinking about strategy, she'd reason that this would be able to prevent him from using those extremely dangerous Head Smash moves. But it was more than that.

It was WAY more than that. And now that she finally had a chance to pummel him to her heart's content...she was going to take it.

"YOU JERK! YOU STUPID JERK!" she screamed. "STOP HURTING RYOSHI! GIVE IT BACK! GIVE HIM HIS LIFE BACK!!"

With the force of the Hyper Voice and the countless punches landing on his face, the mighty giant let out one more horrific screech before finally toppling over and impacting the ground with a 'thud!' big enough to make the very earth shake. But Amy didn't stop there, she continued to punch unrelentingly, unsatisfied with just that.

Ryoshi grunted, sitting himself back up and rubbing his chest. It was sore, but there didn't seem to be anything broken. Either his tiny leather tunic did a better job of protecting than he gave it credit, Amy's Friend Guard ability protected him more than he expected it to do, or both.

He looked around until he found the fight again, and realized that Amy had actually toppled the beast all her own. But... Something wasn't right. Kaigen wasn't fighting back, and Amy was still unleashing a flurry of punches as if he was. This wasn't like her, the excessive violence. If she kept going like that, there was a good chance she could actually kill him.

That's when it dawned on him. She really was trying to kill him. Jukidoor had said himself that the paint she had drawn on her face meant she was going to murder someone, and Amy herself cried out that this was going to be a fight to the finish. Even if Ryoshi was a warrior, he couldn't believe anyone deserved to die; his heart just told him it was wrong no matter what the reasoning.

"A—Amy!" He struggled to his feet and began to lumber towards her. "He's down already! Please, stop! No one deserves such a fate as death!"

Amy vaguely heard what Ryoshi said, but her mind was way too focused on pummeling Kaigen for her to really listen. Instead, she continued to shout, "OF COURSE YOU DESERVE TO DIE, YOU HORRIBLE BEAST! YOU DID NOTHING BUT HURT RYOSHI AND RUINED HIS LIFE! YOU MADE HIM SUFFER, AND I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU! EVER!!" The intense anger from her punching was so strong that it even overrode the pain in her arms that was being caused from punching into a rock/steel face over and over again.

As for Jukidoor, he could only watch while squirming in doubt. He himself was concerned, but tribal customs and force of habit dictated that no one was allowed to interfere with a Death Match, and 45 years of being in said tribe was too much for him to overcome at this point.

"R—Ryoshi..." he uttered, weakly. "I...I don't think..."

"NO, Amy!" Ryoshi ignored the pain he was in for now, and sprinted at her as fast as he could manage. He jumped on top of the Aggron himself, catching the Jigglypuff's punch even if the impact stung his whole arm.

It took all his will to look into her cold, black eyes. "This isn't you, Amy... The Amy I know is kind, compassionate; not cold and cruel. Killing Kaigen will only make you as bad as he is."

He paused to reach under his helm and pull out the lustrous blue feather. "Look at the feather, Amy. You gave this to me, and I know it means something special. I want the old Amy back, the one who cared about me enough to give me this present. The Amy I fell in love with. Please, just... stop."

Tears were dripping from his cheeks at this point, and he wrapped his arms around the Jigglypuff.

For a second there, it seemed as though Ryoshi's words did get to Amy as she just shook in his grasp and her eyes seemed like they were returning to normal, struggling to believe him. She wanted to believe him. She really did. But at the same time...if she let Kaigen live...

He would only try to capture Ryoshi again, wouldn't he?

"NO!" she screamed, blasting Ryoshi off of her with a Hyper Voice. "I said this was a Death Match, and I'm going to finish it! Besides, Kaigen's only going to hurt us again when he wakes up!"

Before Ryoshi would even be able to intercept it in time, she clenched up her badly bruised fist and held it up, intending to smash it down upon Kaigen's face. "This will END it!!"

Suddenly...

A flash of light darted across her eyes. And then...

Visions.

A strange place she never even seen in her life. A place of hard living, of bleak dreariness. One where the "V" arrowhead symbol was prominently displayed on flags everywhere.

A reluctant, innocent little Aron who was just taken in...

How the Lairon suffered, but was determined to somehow find a way to survive...

And how by the time he became an Aggron, the light that was in his eyes had faded entirely.

Just like her own.

Then...

Ryoshi.

His eyes were fading, too.

But then...he saw an opportunity to escape.

No one saw him as he was just about to escape the place. Except one. The Aggron. Who was about to stop him right there.

Until he saw the remaining light his eyes.

And then...after a long period of time...decided to let him go instead.

Ryoshi was too far away to notice this.

The discovery that Ryoshi had escaped.

The Aggron volunteering to get him back. As the strongest of all the generals, it was only fitting, expected, and logical.

And then...

"Ye'd better make sum' good friends, wherever ye go, kid...stick it to 'em an' show 'em how it's done."

Sometime during Amy's space-out, Ryoshi had rushed back and held onto her again, both to keep her from delivering the punch and to comfort her in another attempt to calm her down again.

As Amy came back to, Ryoshi was stroking her hair and whispering "Shh..." in her ear. And although he could tell something had worked from the color flushing back into her eyes, he continued to lovingly pet her all the same.

"I...I..." It was hard for her to speak after what she had just witnessed. Those things she saw...they were from the spirits themselves, weren't they? Did that mean...she was never meant to finish this Death Match in the first place? And no wonder, too, with what they just showed her. With a shiver, she realized that if they never intervened, she never would have found out about everything she had just seen since she would have killed Kaigen before ever getting a chance to ask him.

It was enough to make the darkness evident in her eyes to melt away...to be replaced with her emerald eyes' bright luster, as well as tears she had been holding back all this time.

"I...I'm so sorry, Ryoshi...!"

And with that, she finally cried into his arms, rubbing her face against his tunic. The fact that her tears would mess with her face paint and ruin the sacred significance of them didn't matter anymore, because if the spirits themselves said this Death Match wasn't to be, then it wasn't.

"I...I didn't know...that he was the one who saved you...!"

Ryoshi only continued to comfort her as she let it all out. She wanted to say more, but was way too overwhelmed at the moment, and by the time she did, her arms and head were so tired out from the entire ordeal that she drifted off, losing consciousness. But she didn't mind. As long as she was with him...

Everything would be all right.



When she woke up, the first thing she noticed was a familiar ceiling, as well as a freshly patched-up wall where a certain Golurk had accidentally ripped some of it quite some time ago.

And of course, Ryoshi.

"Hey, you're finally awake..." The Mawile leaned down to kiss the lying Jigglypuff's forehead gently. "You feeling okay? Nothing's too badly hurt, right?"

"Um..."

She tried stretching herself out to see if there was anything wrong. Nope, nothing too badly bruised...though there was the matter of her arms...

She lifted them up to find that they were covered in bandages. "M...my arms are busted..." she muttered. The soreness from them, however, paled in comparison to what it represented to her. "...I...I nearly killed..." Then she shouted suddenly, "Ryoshi, Kaigen's not a bad guy! If it weren't for him, you would never have escaped that place and—!"

"Shh..." He placed a finger over her mouth before pointing off to her side. The Aggron was lying on a few mats placed on the floor, too big to actually use one of the beds, but obviously getting treatment all the same.

"I'm not sure what happened, but when I grabbed you to stop your punches, I... saw things. I saw Kaigen letting me escape. Were those the visions you talked about before? If so, I'm not sure how I saw them too, but... I'm glad I did. After you passed out in my arms, I brought you here to the medical office and then Jukidoor and I got some help dragging Kaigen here. Guinevere says he'll be alright after a few days of treatment. She also said that you hurt your arms pretty bad punching metal like that, but you'll be okay soon, too." He stroked her head gently, just in case she was still sore. "And I'm thankful for that."

Amy just stared in shock. "Wait, you saw what I saw...? No way...I thought that stuff only happened in legends. And not just that, but I didn't think anyone outside my tribe could actually see them, since you guys don't seem to believe in that stuff..."

She then glanced at Kaigen before turning back to Ryoshi. "By the way, when do you think he's going to wake up?"

"How 'bout now?"

With a deep grunt, the Aggron flopped over on his side, facing the direction of the two. "I've been awake fer a while, lil' lady, just not needed ter actually say nothin'. But what yer' sayin' is true, I did let him go. I never felt good punishin' them others, I just did it ter not get punished myself."

The Aggron's sudden answer shocked the two of them, but Ryoshi quickly found his voice again. "Well... if what you say is true, and you didn't want to be there, either... You can live free, like me now. You're not in Sazanami anymore; you can stay outside, and not have to live under their rules anymore."

Kaigen closed his eyes and scratched his chest. "Yeah... Tha' sounds good. I always wanted ter go see other places..."

Amy just blinked and stared as she turned to face Kaigen. Wait...what...WHAT?? Was she hearing things? He was readily just letting them go...just like that? What happened to the whole, 'I'm gonna defeat ye an' bring th' lot o' y'all to Sazanami fer public execution' deal!? She just continued to stare at him incredulously.

Finally, she couldn’t help but laugh ironically. "Well! It looks like I was getting so worked up for absolutely NOTHING! Hahaha, I swear, I totally thought I was going to have to come up with this great big argument to try to convince you to leave us alone and be free, and that when those people at the camp place notice that not only two people but their strongest commander have left permanently, they'd wake up and think, 'Hey, this whole operation SUCKS after all!' But it looks like I don't have to do that after all~!"

She grinned. She attempted to hold out her hand before realizing that it was still in bandages and retracted it, chuckling sheepishly. "Anyway, let me start over. My name's Amy Apirana, and I'm a tailor here in Aether. Call me Amy! I'm Ryoshi's girlfriend~."

"Yeh, yeh, I guess I should explain meself a bit..." He grunted. "Girlfriend, eh? Lucky little man... Uh, anyway... I should apologize fer beatin’ ya like that. I needed ter make sure tat you could actually fight off anyone that would try an' bring you back. If anyone but me came, if they were ta' fail, they'd just crawl back with a report on how ter' beat ya, and they'd send another. I knew I was ter best, so if I failed, maybe they'd just be too scared ta risk another general... And I knew tat if the kid could find some friends and beat me, they could overcome any challenge the army'd send. That's why I let tat Crustle girl out too. So she could come an' warn ya."

Kaigen rubbed his sore arm, wincing with pain. "I guess I should t'ank ya fer not killin' me too. Even if I probably deserve it..."

Amy looked down. "Yeah, um...sorry about that. I...I was just so mad at you and assumed that you were the one who ruined Ryoshi's life that I didn't even stop to think about asking you your side of the story. Guess Ryoshi really knocked some sense into me, huh?"

She also shivered, though, at the prospect that the very thing that she had feared the most would have happened had it been anyone OTHER than Kaigen. Wow. She really dodged a spear through the heart there.

"Um...Kaigen—is it okay if I call you that? ...I have a few questions, though," said Amy. "...That camp place was to find the next great shogun person with that mark, right? And it's been around for centuries, right? ...Did they ever actually find anyone? I mean, if you're the strongest of them all...then why didn't they make YOU the shogun?"

"Yeh, it's fine..." The Aggron grunted once more. "And they still are, yeh, but no one's been as skilled as that first shogun. He nearly beat the Goddess Lugia by himself, and I got beat by a couple a' pipsqueaks like yous. No offense. And besides, the current shogun's a lot stronger than I am anyway. Nobody crosses her and lives."

"Aw..." She groaned. Of course such a place would be around for centuries if they actually did find someone. "Well, considering how no one's been able to match the first guy so far...I guess there's still hope they'd eventually realize the pointlessness of it." She then turned around to hug Ryoshi as best as she could. "Besides, the most important thing is that you guys are now free, right? And that girl, too...hey, wait a second? Where has she been all this time?"

"Kohana? She's been in hiding just in case things went wrong. She never was great at fighting..." Ryoshi chuckled as he shook his head. "But you know, Kaigen... Kohana told me about running to somewhere called Khetmaat. From my understanding, most of the country's a big desert. It sounds like a good place for a couple of Rock-types to stay. I'm sure I could talk her into letting you tag along if you wanted."

"..." Kaigen stroked his chin. "I suppose there's no harm in it. At the least, I could get some sorta honest life goin’."



As soon as Kaigen had recovered from his injuries, Amy and Ryoshi were at the edge of the kingdom, waving goodbye to him and Kohana as they set off for Khetmaat. As Amy watched the Aggron and Crustle go, she could only hope that the two of them would be able to live the lives they've always wanted there. And if they didn't...well...at least Aether was still open as an option.

What she really couldn't wait for, however, was her plan to redo her proposal to Ryoshi that night as she dragged him up the cliff once again. She figured that doing so while the stars were out at night instead of in the morning would be a better idea for good luck this time, and besides, Ryoshi had already seen the blue feather, so he'd know what it looked like.

By the time the two of them reached the top of the cliff as the sun had set over the horizon, she couldn't help but turn around and casually mention, "Okay...let's hope that no one like Kohana interrupts us this time."

"Haha, I don't think anything like that will happen this time..." He gave her a tight squeeze. "...Unless you got an evil god from your tribe that could show up." He cracked a smile. He hoped nothing like that would actually happen.

Amy laughed. "No, no. Those are just in legends and stuff. As far as I can tell, anyway; haven't actually met any real gods yet."

Now that it was over with, though, her face quickly grew somber. "...Before I start, though...I…there's an important confession I have to make."

"Oh?" He noticed her sudden change in mood, and looked seriously into her once again deep emerald eyes. "What's that?"

She took a deep breath, trying to gather her thoughts properly, before responding.

"...Ever since I heard about what you've been through before you came here, I...well, I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but then when we fell in love, it...it became more important to me. I hated the fact that you were away from the people you cared about most, and that you were forced to do stuff you didn't like for all those years...or, well, stuff that I hated, anyway. It made me sad whenever someone would bring it up, but I figured I could live with it, because, you know...it's not like it would ever affect you again, right?"

She then clenched her now-healed fist as she lowered her head. "...Then Kohana came and told us that Kaigen was coming to take you back. I—I guess that's when it all came out. Do you know why I wanted to kill Kaigen so badly…? Not just because I'd die if you were ever taken away, but because I wanted to destroy every last trace of that thing that had ruined your life and made you sad! I started wishing that if only I could go back in time and save you before you were taken away, or even destroyed the whole stupid camp in the first place, or even destroy it back however many centuries ago before it was even made...! But I know that's impossible, because I'd have to be a god in order to do that! Or even meet Jirachi and get that wish fulfilled! I was even willing to give my life in order for it to come true...because I love you so much and I wanted to make you happy..."

By this point, she was starting to cry. "...But then the spirits showed me that when I was trying to do what I could by killing Kaigen...I was actually hurting the person I cared about most! It wouldn't have been enough, either! I would have gone on over there to destroy the whole place, and probably would have ended up killed! I...I didn't know that by trying so hard to make you happy, I'd only end up hurting you the most...!"

Ryoshi put on a brave smile and snuggled up to Amy. By this point, he had gotten pretty good at comforting Amy whenever she felt down. Not that he minded having to do so; he would do anything to make her happy. Because seeing her happy was the greatest feeling he could experience.

"Amy... You should also know that... Every gruesome day I spent in that place? Being here with you and loving you, right now, is enough to make surviving every single day in that place...worth it."

The Jigglypuff blinked and stared at him, completely taken by shock at what the Mawile had just said. She had never thought of it that way before. "Y...You really mean it?"

"Of course I mean it." He took one of her stumpy hands and gave it a loving squeeze, although remembering not to do so too tightly in case her hand was still sore. "I've told you before, and I mean it now more than ever. You are best thing that has ever happened to me..."

She smiled as she wiped a tear away from her eyes. "Thanks, Ryoshi...I...I guess, when I think about it, it's the same for me too. Just being here with you is enough to make everything I went through in my entire life—especially every single day I spent on that Vision Quest—worth it. So, I guess I know how you feel."

She then hugged him, "And, well...while I'm at it, um...you know your birthday when I brought your mom and dad to you? And how you called me your little angel? That...that made me so happy! Because I'd always wanted to be that person for you!"

Ryoshi embraced her back. "That's how I feel about you; you're like my little guardian fairy. And I want to be yours, to protect you for as long as I can. To make you always feel special, and important.  To let you know that I'll always care..."

Even after everything that had happened, even after everything they'd been through, he still felt that way? For real? That clinched it for her. Now was the perfect time to propose. "I...I guess you got me there..." The wave of warmth that had flooded her heart was so powerful that it prevented her from being able to say much more for a while.

After she had wiped her tears off and let go of him in their embrace, she took a small step back, but holding his right hand in her left like last time. "Well, might as well ask what I've been wanting to ask since last time—no, since that very day. The answer might be obvious by now, but hey, I still want to say this."

Taking a deep breath, she then pulled out the blue feather from behind herself with her right hand and gently placed it into his, with her eyes then looking up to meet his. Even in the dark, his ruby red eyes' luster didn't fade. With a warmhearted smile, she finally said the words that she always wanted to finish.

"Ryoshi...will you marry me?"

"I—"

The Mawile paused, a warm and loving smile spreading across his face as his heart swelled. He picked her up, allowing her to grab onto his collar as she had grown accustomed to, but he also wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"This better work or I'm going to be really embarrassed here..." he muttered. A slight tingling of electricity flowed through his body until it made its way into his feet. A light humming noise could be heard as the electricity flowed out of the soles of his feet in waves, slowly pushing the two off the ground and into the air.

The two softly rose higher into the air until they were above even the bird Pokémon. "Surprise," he whispered.

"...! ...!" Amy had thought that he wanted her to kiss him, but when he started flying into the air, all she could do was just stare in shock and grasp onto him even more tightly, with one of her eyes twitching practically the whole time. She glanced down at the ground at how the cliff, forest, and even the kingdom of Aether itself became smaller and smaller below them, allowing them to see the forests behind the kingdom and the ocean opposite it. It was enough to remind her just how far she had to travel to come here...

It took everything she had in her to remind herself that even if they fell, she could use Psychic to break their fall and help keep them afloat. She just wasn't used to this sort of sensation on a regular basis, as the only other time she flew was with Solum, so of course she was really nervous. At least with Ryoshi here, she was somewhat more relaxed than before.

After a long time, all she could say in response was, "...You can FLY!? How—what—when—?" She was at a complete loss for words. It was as if it was something that only occurred in legends.

He noticed her grip on even tighter as they ascended, and chuckled to himself. "Whoops, guess I should've told you to hold on tight." Ryoshi would have pulled her chin up if he wasn't so concerned with using his hands to ensure she didn't fall, so instead he gently nudged her with his head until they were both starring into each other's eyes.

"I learned Magnet Rise...for you. I remembered you told me about the day Solum took you flying, and how you told me it was your tribe's dream and how much fun it was. I couldn't help you to fly, so I did the next best thing: I learned to fly for you."

With that wonderful smile that only Amy could cause spreading even more across his face, he continued. "You remember on that day I accidentally found out you were considering marriage, and you told me that when you find the one person you're destined to marry, you'll know it 100%? Well... On my birthday, when my parents walked into my house and told me you were the reason they were there? The emotions I felt that day... That was when I was sure it had to be you. The day you were taking my parents on a tour of the city, I was training with Gawain so that I could learn it. I know this is nothing compared to what you've done for me, but I hope it's a start."

He stopped for a moment to look into Amy's eyes again, and then with a deep breath, he finally worked up the guts to finish. "I guess this is a really long winded way of saying... Yes. Yes, Amy Apirana, I will marry you."

If she wasn't shocked before, she definitely was now at the revelations he just spilled for her, but at the same time, her heart swelled with happiness. "Are you kidding me!?" she exclaimed. "This is the best thing you could ever do for me! All my life, if I wanted to marry someone, I've always wished I could be with someone like you, and...and now..." She sniffed. "...it finally came true. Thank you, Ryoshi..."

"No, thank you Amy... I love you." He pulled her in closer for another kiss, and he was determined to make it be as every bit as magical as their first.

"I love you, too..." Already getting the same idea, it was only natural for her to lean in so she could wrap her lips around his.

In a way, it was just like their first kiss, just like Ryoshi wanted, in that the fact that they were in midair added just as much tension to the experience as there was when Amy first nervously did so. But that wasn't all. In fact, the sensation of floating in midair, under the beautiful night sky, was enough to make it even more wonderful than ever before.

The two stayed there for what seemed like forever, simply enjoying that magical moment to its fullest extent, until the two finally decided to slowly drift apart. Ryoshi began the gentle decent back down to the earth below. When his own feet touched the soil again, he continued to hold and snuggle with Amy for a bit longer before also returning her to ground. As the two turned to stare out at the moon-lit kingdom, Ryoshi spoke up once again.

"By the way... When should we have the wedding?"

"Oh..." She blushed, remembering such a thing, before looking into his eyes and giggling. "...I actually know the exact date, buuuuuut..."

She continued to grin mischievously at him. "...You probably want to figure it out yourself, don't you? Well...I'll give you two hints. One; it'll be this fall, and two...well...do you remember what you said about giving me the best birthday ever?"

Ryoshi shot her a mischievous smirk and winked. "November 13th? I'm sure we can do that; we can do whatever your heart wants, my little moon princess~. We'll have to get somebody to help us start planning."

"That's it!" She practically squealed in delight. "And yeah, we should tell EVERYONE! Your mom and dad, MY dad, Chasca, Solum, Falcia! Even Graphite! I bet they'd all want to help us! We gotta plan out decorations and everything! Hey, maybe I could help make them, too! Oh man, oh man, this is going to be the best. Day. EVER!"

The two of them continued to excitedly discuss wedding plans as they made their way back home to their respective homes in the middle of the night.

As they did so, Amy had plenty of time to think over all the crazy events that had happened over the past couple of weeks. They were enough to make her realize that everything had a reason for happening; that if Ryoshi hadn't been taken to the camp, he never would have wanted to escape, and if he never wanted to escape, he never would have found his way to Aether, and if he never found his way to Aether...then...they never would have met. Similarly, if she hadn't been on her Vision Quest for as long as she was, she never would have been able to meet Ryoshi as he first came to Aether around the same time. He might have met someone else, or no one at all, staying alone forever. She never even would have been here to NAME it Aether in the first place, or make all these people happy...especially Ryoshi.

In short, she might not be able to change his past...but she had been able to change his future. And he had done the same for her, too.

And in the end, that was the most important thing of all.
No longer cannon!


<<< Part 3 - Bringer of Despair

This is part four in a four part arc featuring =ChicoChikorita's Ryoshi Sumiura the Mawile and *Amy-the-Jigglypuff's Amy Apirana the Jigglypuff:



:bulletyellow::bulletyellow::bulletyellow: =ChicoChikorita's Comments: :bulletyellow::bulletyellow::bulletyellow:

Yay! Happy ending! (Of course it is, it would be pretty stupid of us to have them lose and just throw away both of our characters!) But I bet no one saw this end coming, Kaigen's actually... A good guy?! In the beginning, I think Amy actually did want to kill the guy off, but... I'm a big softy. I don't like killing any character that I took the time to create. So we ended up creating this twist instead. I think it works out for the better at the end; now Amy doesn't have to live with the guilt of murder.

While I have you guys here though, and Ryoshi and Amy are officially engaged, I want to make a point out of how long this has been planned. I bought Focus Blast so long ago just in preparation for this fight. And if you want a good point at how long I've been hinting towards their marriage, go look at Ryoshi's ToC again. Does the 'peach' hanging off the sakura tree remind you of anyone? Haha, I'm excited for this. Now to wait until November~.

:bulletpink::bulletpink::bulletpink: *Amy-the-Jigglypuff's comments: :bulletpink::bulletpink::bulletpink:

Woo~! Finally! We got this series done! This was definitely the RP I'd been looking forward to for a while, and I'm so glad that we reached it after all these months of planning. It even turned out better than I expected since I've had plenty of time to think about how some lines can go, and stuff. At the very least, this isn't going to become a Sym-Bionic Titan sort of deal in which they keep sending generals over to take Ryoshi back... :faint: So, yeah! Look forward to the wedding in about three months! And I'll be sure to think of several choice October Behests related to it, too~.

Cameos:
Jukidoor the Clefable
Kohana the Crustle
General Kaigen the Aggron

:star: Word Count: 7000 = 7000 Cressents :star:
© 2013 - 2024 Mosshrooms
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iBeebs's avatar
Oh gosh, I loved this. I'm so happy these two are together; they're just the sweetest couple! <3
You two did such a wonderful job; I can't wait to see more from you all. C: