Chapter Text
“Hey there.”
Footsteps. A figure loomed over him. Shadows obscured their face like a mask. Squinting didn’t make the rest of their features any less hazy. Was this a dream? Everything was too fuzzy to tell.
“You’re not quite awake yet, hmm? Let’s start with this: do you know what a majority vote is?”
His head felt heavy, but he slowly nodded. The figure clapped.
“Wonderful! That saves me some time! A majority vote is the very foundation of the game you’re about to play!”
A… game? He tried to lift himself off the ground, but even lifting a finger was a gargantuan effort. The figure crouched down at the edge of his vision.
“For example, let’s say Person A and Person B are at odds over some issue. You could side with either one of them. In this world, the majority rules. No matter what A or B desires, your choice will become law. It’ll decide their fate. And in this game, life is the thing at stake.”
Life at stake? Does that mean the person who loses will…?
“But like I said, it’s all up to the majority? That’s what’s wonderful about the world, isn’t it? And you will be. Understanding. Every. Second. Of. It.” They tapped his nose with each pause.
This was just a dream. His vision was fading away. He’d wake up soon. Why, then, did anxiety grip his heart? The figure stood up and the sound of footsteps grew fainter.
“Death by majority. Let’s see how y…handle th… same as I…”
Then nothing.
And then, a light.
Rei found himself squinting at an unfamiliar ceiling. Pure gray, stone as well - not anything in Jubilife Village, and too smooth to be one of the temples. The air was cool, not freezing but still enough to make his nose and ears cold from however long he’d been sleeping in here. He forced himself up to a sitting position. The blurriness in his vision returned for a moment. With a groan, he rested his head between his knees.
Was he hurt? Besides a fuzzy mind and a slight chill, no. Last thing he remembered was going off to the Coronet Highlands for a survey… No, not just a survey… He was looking for-
“Akari!” he shouted, standing up despite his vision threatening to slip into that void again. She’d been gone for a few days. Even Melli and Ingo hadn’t seen her. Rei had decided to search for clues, and that was when… when…
He couldn’t recall what happened, why he was here, or what “here” even was. His Pokémon’s balls weren’t with him. He had no reason to believe anyone knew where he was or what his (theoretical) captor wanted with him. He took a deep breath. Think, Rei. This place might have answers. He adjusted his cap and looked around this strange stone room.
The room was not furnished save for a wooden table with a box on top. The table sat between Rei and a red door, the latter of which had a yellow box mounted to the wall to the right of the doorway. He rushed around the table and tugged at the handle. It didn’t budge. A firm kick (followed by muffled curses and a sore foot) revealed that the door was metal.
“No chance of breaking it down, then,” Rei muttered. He fished in his pack for anything of use. His fingers hit a concerning amount of cloth, and for a moment he feared someone or something emptied it, but then his hand closed around a smooth object.
Whatever it was made of had the same feel as Akari’s Arc Phone. It was a box-like device composed of a few buttons and numerous tiny holes. It vaguely reminded him of the professor’s camera but other than its handheld nature, Rei couldn’t figure out its function, so the foolproof method it was: hitting buttons until something happened.
“Hello, Rei.”
Rei’s grip slipped and he had to fumble to catch the strange speaking object. Despite being tumbled around, it spoke calmly.
“You may be wondering why you are here. All will be answered once you move onto the game proper. However, there is a First Trial you must complete to prove your competence.”
“W-wait, trial? Game? What does that even mean?!” Rei shouted. The device ignored him and kept talking.
“Inside the box on the table you will find three vials. At least two are filled with a deadly poison, and one is harmless. To unlock the door, you must put one vial - at least half-full, no cheating - in the cabinet by the door. This will activate a system that will disperse the contents in a gaseous form. There is no other way to open this door. If you do not complete this task in ten minutes, a secondary poison will be released. Good luck.” Silence.
“Wait wait wait, don’t go!” Rei mashed the buttons some more, but all that happened was strange noises and repeats of the speech. He threw the device to the ground and threw open the wooden box. Three metal and glass containers sat inside: green, purple, and red. No labels, just a sheet of paper. There was no text, only a wheel with a color between each spoke - six colors in total, from red to purple. He’d seen one of these before: a “color wheel,” right?
He set it aside and opened the other box by the door. There was a small label by an opening that one of the vials could easily squeeze into: “Insert Target Vial,” with a circled image of a vial with a brownish liquid inside alongside a few other non-circled vials with different contents.. He just had to insert it here, but which one? Could he even do it in one try? How much time had passed already? He glared at the vials, glared at the sheet with all its garish colors-
Color . That was the theme of this puzzle. Rei wasn’t an artist, but he could guess some things. The box was yellow, and yellow and blue made green, but the green vial seemed too shaky to bet on, especially with the picture hinting at a different target color. If he guessed blindly, he had a one-in-three chance, and no other ones matched the yellow of the box or even the brown in the image. Rei gripped both sides of his hat and pulled down. Maybe he was thinking about this wrong. His feet carried him in a tight circle between the table and the door. Three vials. Need to put one in the box. Can’t remove all the liquid beforehand. At least two are poison. He froze. Wait, at least two? That means all three could be poisoned, which is unwinnable, unless…
It was an absolutely stupid idea, but it was all he had.
Rei ran to the vials once more and opened each one, then started pouring some of the contents on the table. As each set of drops mixed, they changed color, but only one combination matched the brown on the label: red and green. With shaking hands, he poured the green liquid into the red liquid’s vial. His hands tingled as some liquid splashed over but he capped the vial and shoved it into the box, slammed it shut, and waited.
All he heard was his labored breath and the whirring of machinery. A click was the only warning he got before mist sprayed out of the box. Rei pulled his scarf over his mouth and held his breath. All he had to do was open the door.
The handle didn’t turn.
Was it stuck? Did he do something wrong? He tugged at the door in a panic as the gas spread throughout the room. Eventually, the tension in his chest became too great, and he breathed in…
He was fine. Probably. He felt dizzy, though not as overwhelming as when he woke up. He didn’t dare lower his scarf even if his shallow breaths didn’t bring in enough air through the fabric. It’ll open in a bit, he thought. Whoever locked him here must have given some delay between inserting the vial and unlocking the door to make sure a deadly poison would kill. That meant he had time to plan for when the door would unlock.
They’d have to come here to unlock the door. Rei wasn’t a fighter, but he could probably take them down if he surprised them. He just had to time it right. With newfound resolve, he placed his right hand on the handle and waited.
Click.
Unlocked! He twisted the handle and threw himself forward-
His feet hit nothing. His stomach rose up towards his chest as darkness swallowed him whole.
-
Light and voices were the first things to come into Rei’s awareness. Maybe someone had found him and set him free. He was being held by muscular, warm, fluffy arms. Fluffy? A coat? Who was wearing a coat that warm in this weather? He cracked open his eyes…
Staring back at him was a ferocious beast.
“AAAAAAAAGH!”
“The hell-?” it growled - spoke, it spoke - with its jaw of sharp, white teeth open in surprise. It was a gray canine, sort of like an Arcanine, but its body was bipedal and well-built like a Machoke’s. And it was wearing clothes , complete with sunglasses .
“Wh… what are… what kind of…” Rei sputtered. His throat felt too tight to form any kind of words.
“Spit it out, punk!” the beast snarled. It was going to eat him. He was going to die here. He squirmed out of the monster’s grip and fell to the floor. In this moment of life and death, his half-awake body wasn’t fast enough, because the monster loomed over him in an instant. Hot breath hit his face. For a moment, he genuinely thought it would swallow him whole.
“Oh for the Twelve’s sake, can’t you see you’re scaring the poor boy?” A new voice broke Rei out of his panic. A regal-looking black-haired man approached him. His outfit was either Galarian or Unovan, fancy at a glance but not immensely expensive. The beast grumbled, but backed off.
“Er… thank you… but who are…” Rei said, his voice faltering once more as he took in his surroundings. These two weren’t the only other people here. He cleared his throat. “Who are… all these people?”
None were as intimidating as the wolf-man beside him, but they were still odd. He counted about nine others in total, including a humanoid dark canine and a girl about nine years old. The regal man put a hand to his chin.
“Aside from one friend, I have no idea. We should introduce ourselves now that you’ve finally awoken,” he said.
“Why’ve we gotta do that? I can get outta here on my own,” the beast grumbled.
The regal man shook his head. “I doubt it’ll be that easy. We don’t even know where we are or who kidnapped us. We should get to know one another and go from there,” he replied, raising his voice enough to catch the attention of everyone else in the room.
Rei heard some murmurs among the crowd but everyone drifted into a messy circle, deciding to postpone whatever conversations they were having. He counted eleven people total besides himself. The only common thing about them was the metal collars they wore - except for two of them, but their outfits probably covered it. Rei reached under his scarf. Cool metal met his fingers. It wasn’t very thick, but it was tight enough to stay secure without cutting his circulation. The only other pattern was some people consciously or unconsciously staying close to each other: a merchant girl without a guild logo slid into place beside the regal man, a girl with pink hair in twintails huddled by the side of a silver-haired man, and a lavender-haired man in a tattered jacket held a red-eyed little girl’s hand.
“Um… quick question, what happened while I was asleep?” Rei asked. “I remember opening a door, then falling down a hole…”
“There was a trap door for me, and I fell down onto a cushion. I think they’re in every one of the halls,” a ginger-haired woman in a yellow suit said. She held the box she was carrying under one arm so she could gesture at the numerous doorways lining the walls with the other.
“Yeah, had to carry you out of one,” the beast added. “Y’ smelled like some chemicals so that’s prolly what knocked you out.”
“Ah, right, the poison… wait, I should probably tell you who I am first. I’m Rei, from Jubilife Village,” Rei said. He was met with silence and confused stares. He pulled his scarf over his mouth to hide his embarrassed blush. “...You might not know it. It hasn’t been around for long. It’s in Hisui. You know, untamed wilderness…? Recently-built colony…?” Yet more silence. As if to save him from further mortification, the regal man stepped forward.
“I am Cyrus Albright, a professor at the Royal Academy of Atlasdam.” No wonder he looks like Galarian nobility. “I unfortunately have no answers as to why I am here, although I was not kidnapped alone.”
“I was brought with him!” the merchant girl said, stepping forward with a smile. “I’m Tressa Colzione, a merchant! I was visiting him when… uh… something happened. Can’t really remember. Next thing I know I’m strapped to a table and we have to solve some deadly puzzle.” She suddenly let out a yelp as she was shoved aside by a short purple-haired teenager with a checkered scarf.
“Whooooa, you got a different First Trial? I wish mine was as cool as that!” the teen shouted. He was immediately given a less forceful shove by Tressa.
“It wasn’t cool! We could have died! What was yours even like?” she snapped.
“Weeeeell, it was a Russian roulette game, except with explosive bullets! Thrice the danger of regular Russian roulette! But because I’m Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, I had a foolproof plan to get out of it.” He spoke as casually as if he was talking about the weather.
“Ultimate Supreme Leader? You look like you couldn’t lead your way out of a paper bag,” the beast said. He flexed his claws. “All that crap about having an organization with 10,000 members? Don’t buy it for a second. I know what a real organization leader looks like. I’m a fu-” He glanced at the little girl. “I’m a frickin’ high-rank Shadow Decree member. The name’s Freddy.”
“Freddy, you’re so mean!” Kokichi cried, rubbing away a torrent of fake tears. “And I thought you were going to play nice!”
“Are you done now?” a girl with short white hair asked. Her dry tone set Kokichi back to his normal mischievous grin in an instant.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Phido,” he replied.
“It’s Phi .” She sighed and pushed up her glasses. The other humanoid dog, this one dressed like a butler, cleared its throat and bowed.
“Let us continue. I am Drew, a member of the Esper Union, an organization that protects people from threats like his group,” the butler said, gripping his ankh-shaped staff tightly as he looked over at Freddy. Freddy just huffed and looked away. With his introduction finished, Drew nodded at the man in the tattered coat that was with the small girl.
The man blinked a few times, then finally realized what Drew’s gesture meant and laughed nervously. “Oh, me? I suppose I should introduce the both of us. My name is Garry, and this is Ib. We were in an art gallery before this, but I haven’t the foggiest idea of how we ended up here,” the man said. He kept a friendly smile but his eyes darted around like a cornered animal’s. Ib said nothing, just partly hiding behind him.
“Alright!” The girl in the yellow suit broke the tense silence. “I’m Athena Cykes, a defense attorney from the Wright Anything Agency! I can’t say that I haven’t gotten enemies from my job over the years, but I don’t know anyone who’d kidnap me and eleven strangers.” Now that she mentions it, I’ve got no idea what connects us all. Two of them aren’t even human.
All that was left was two people: the pink-haired girl in a poofy jacket and a silver-haired man with an outfit in a similar style to but less flashy than Cyrus’. The girl kept staring at the ground while the man stood still with his eyes closed. Neither had said a word since everyone had gathered. After a few more long seconds, the man crossed his arms.
“It appears that it is our turn. Would it be wise to use our names so freely…?” The man frowned.
“Oi, just hurry it up!” Freddy snapped. “If our kidnappers went out of their way to get us, they probably know all sort of other shhhhhhtuff.” He glanced at Ib again.
“You do have a point. You may call me Light, and this is…” Light trailed off.
“Clover,” the girl said quietly. She anxiously rubbed her metal collar. Phi stared at her, but looked away the moment their eyes met. Weird. Do those two know each other, too?
Cyrus clapped his hands. “Good, that’s everyone. Now that we know who each of us are, it’s best we exchange what’s happened so far to make sense of all this. Perhaps we should begin with our kidnappings, then onto the First Trial…”
The story of the kidnapping was the same for everyone else: they were heading somewhere, then their memory went fuzzy and they woke up in a room. The only variations were with the four pairs: Tressa and Cyrus, Garry and Ib, Freddy and Drew, and Light and Clover. They had been with each other when they were taken (in Freddy and Drew’s case, they were fighting at the time).
Rei took a little time to work up the nerve to describe his First Trial. He wasn’t sure how lucky his trial choice was, listening to the others. The pairs had to work together to free their partner from a deathtrap bed, complete with the painful choice of who of the duo to free first. Kokichi had already talked about the Russian roulette challenge, but Rei doubted most of it was actually real. After Rei described his own challenge, Phi remarked that she’d rather have had a puzzle instead of nearly getting crushed by some walls. Athena started tapping her moon earring with her free hand.
“I wonder why I didn’t get any trap? All I got was this box,” she said, setting the box she’d been holding on the ground. “There was also a note to say to open it once everyone’s here, but I’ve got no idea what’s inside. It sounded like something rolled around when I picked it up.”
The box sat menacingly on the ground.
“...So are we gonna open it or what?” Tressa asked.
Phi shook her head. “What if it’s trapped? It could be a bomb for all we know.”
“Hm… In that case, stand back, everyone!” Tressa cracked her knuckles. Rei and everyone else exchanged confused glances, but stepped away regardless. Tressa muttered something about fortune with a flick of her hand…
…and a gust of wind struck the box, knocking off the lid to reveal the contents. Did she just use a Pokémon’s move?! Everyone except Freddy, Drew, Light, and Cyrus stared in awe and confusion. Tressa strolled over and picked it up.
“All clear, Phi! It’s kind of cute, don’t you think?” She showed what appeared to be a fake white animal head to the other girl. Phi’s eyes widened in shock, then she quickly looked away and composed herself.
“What’s that mouse doing here?” she muttered. Rei raised an eyebrow.
“I think it’s a rabbit, but do you recognize it?” he asked. Phi realized her mistake and waved at him dismissively.
“Nevermind. I don’t know what’s going on. Is there anything else in there, Tressa?”
Changing the subject, are we? Rei wanted to question Phi further, but Tressa was already turning the box over. A slip of paper fell out. She set the box down with a thunk and picked up the paper.
“‘Rebuild my body.’ So Athena’s first trial is for us to repair Mr. Rabbit! I don’t think there was anything in our trial room though.” Tressa took off her hat and scratched her head. Rei could almost see the gears turning inside.
“If I may suggest, Miss Tressa,” Drew said, “we should likely find the pieces as we search this place. Should we split up for efficiency’s sake?”
“That could work! Any objections?” Tressa looked around at the group.
Garry raised his hand. “Not disagreeing, but we shouldn’t be on our own. How about we have at least groups of two?” he suggested. There were some murmurs of agreement. There was also some grumbling from Freddy, and a little whining from Kokichi, but the latter eventually slid up to Garry and declared himself the man’s new “best pal.” We’re pairing up already? Who should I… no, no, they already got a partner… them too…
A hand on his shoulder made Rei jump. He looked up to see Cyrus giving him a friendly smile.
“Sorry for startling you. Would you mind joining me?” the professor asked. Rei pointed at himself.
“M-me? I don’t mind, but don’t you want to go with Tressa?”
“I would love to, but I also want to get to know you better. Besides, Tressa’s already off on her own,” Cyrus replied with a chuckle. Rei caught a glimpse of the merchant girl tugging Athena by the hand before that pair slipped beyond a doorway.
“Well if that’s alright with you… sure.” Rei gave him a small smile.
Cyrus clapped his hands together. “Wonderful! Now, seeing this place’s structure…”
As Cyrus speculated on the nature of the building they were in, Rei readied himself for what would await them beyond this room. Maybe there would be more traps, or maybe there would be a larger mystery to uncover.
He ignored the dread creeping in and pressed onward.