The Will to Fight: Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

The battles rage loud and ferocious at the gates of the city and off in the ruined wastelands of Erda, and on the walls a struggle of a different kind occurs. The team who stayed behind at the towers are small but determined as they move stoically across the walls to right the stones that have become misaligned, even as their friends battle not too far away.

The city begins to hum. It's a quiet hum, not loud enough to be heard out where the others are fighting but it vibrates even through stone. The recovering monks assure them that it is done, the wards are back up and no demon will be able to enter the city.

Eventually the battle is won, all three battles. The demons fought back and killed, a major blow to their gate system that will keep them back for hopefully a long time. Those waiting in the caverns return to the city and by the time they get there the illusions are gone. Everyone can see the world for what it really is.

But despite the ruins of their world the people are relieved, the adrenaline of the fight coursing through their veins and the mood is one of hope. They will build again, their people will survive.

All Voidtreckers please return to the Voidtrecker Express. Departure will be in a few hours

It has landed not too far from the city, cloaked to make it unnoticeable to the citizens, for all the good that does. No one has been particularly subtle this last week. People can begin regrouping, packing up the camp and getting any wounded not already healed to the train.

However roughly half an hour later another message appears on their SCA.

Passenger Persephone has requested we remain on system System #86525656412355 for an additional day to further assist the people of Erda. The Voidtrecker Express will depart on the morning of Day Fifteen of the month of Kazoo.

The train remains where it is, so the voidtreckers can use its facilities. There is definitely a lot that can be done to assist those of this world and the citizens will welcome any helping hands.

After an extra day they finally depart, returning to the void once more.

(OOC Note: Once the wards are up any characters who are demonic in nature will not be able to enter the city either!)

Comments

[happyends]

The exta benefit of learning archery that Madoka never expected: getting better at ball games than she ever has been. Though maybe it's not necessarily better when she's accidentally hitting people in the face with balls because they didn't react as quickly as expected..

"Are you sure I should try..?"

But even as the girl is saying that, she's trying to reach up for the blitzball. Please, Tidus, you're too tall, you're holding it out of her reach! Look at these little tippy toes here!

"I-I'm not sure it won't land on your face somehow if it's going high up! And I really don't want you hurt you again, you know.."

[blitzcheer]

OHHH SURE, BLAME HIS REACTION SPEED.

Tidus brings the ball down as she's reaching for it, NOT AS CRUEL AS SOME PEOPLE, and wanting her to actually grab it. He hides his laugh inside a hum, smiling pressing into his cheeks.

"Hey, you know you don't have to aim for my face, right?" Haha! He waves a finger out towards the plaza. "Aim that way, go to the top step and do it!"

The kids below are watching them (though, a few are intrigued by the higgledies, scooped up and letting them perch on their shoulders or in their hands), and Tidus looks out at them, waving his hand turned into a fist forward.

"Heyyy! You wanna see how high she can kick it? You ready to catch!?"

Look at those hands go up, the "Here, here!" and laughter as some of them run to get into place, of where they think Madoka will manage to get it. It's not actually that far away from where they are...

But it looks like it's Madoka Time, now. Time for her to show her stuff.

[happyends]

.. huh?

Huh?!

Madoka gets such a panicked look on her face the moment Tidus calls out to those kids. She's trying to motion (it's hard, when she's also carrying a ball in her arms at the same time!) for him to stop, but it's too late. He's already opened his mouth before she can do anything, and now he's given these children expectations.

Tidus, why? Please, she's but a simple girl, and Madoka is so far from a sports kind of girl that she has about as little confidence in her as some of these kids seem to have.

"T-Tidus, I think that may have been a little bit too much.." There's that obvious Polite Tone Madoka is trying to use, as ever, but there's a hint of whining in it all the same. Is this revenge for the ball in his face. Is it.

But she can't back down when he's riled everyone up so much, so the girl at least gives it an attempt. She does move over to the top step, hoping the height may give the ball some distance as it starts falling down. Maybe. Who knows. Madoka sure doesn't understand ball physics.

And despite the girl looking nervous as all heck, she does pull back her foot, and then move it forward to kick the ball...

.. except she misses, and then a gust of wind starts knocking the ball over, making it roll pathetically down the stairs all by itself.

Welp.

[blitzcheer]

Tidus has nothing but the upmost faith in Madoka. She only needs to kick the ball after all; give it one good kick from the top where there's plenty of room for her to get her bearings and not be stuck with just the narrow width of the steps that lead down to where kids watch up, and the blitzball will do the rest of the work. There's nothing to it. The kids will be impressed, Madoka will be impressed, or embarrassed.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite enter one important factor into this plan: reality.

Because reality rather disagrees with the outcome, as Tidus hears the scrape of what he knows is a foot against stone, a scratch of noise, and then comes the plop...plop, plop of the ball that has him looking back. The kids below giggle, a few that turn into proper laughter.

Uh oh.

Tidus gets up on his feet with an arm stopping and then scooping up the ball after; nevermind their audience below, the sounds they might be making. He gives Madoka a quick pat on the head, a 'Sorry' that he doesn't linger on, backing up a space to make room and distance; only needing to calculate his next move in the second before he drops the ball and kicks it, not letting it land before there it goes, upward, lying high into what will be an arch - but the kids won't know even as their heads all look upward.

"Look out!" he calls, and the kids look between him and then back - and then some yelp as the ball finally descends, hitting slab stone and then bouncing above their heads for a few more turns. One kid falls to the ground, and there's a panic, but in that kind of kid way where they're not really getting out of the way but trying their best to catch it.

Tidus looks to Madoka, away from the animated children.

"Cool, huh? You coulda done it!" he chirps.

[happyends]

Madoka may be just as amazed as the kids - okay, maybe a little bit less, considering she has definitely seen ball sports before back home, and she isn't quite sure if these kids here ever have - when he kicks it like that. So skillfully.

Her attention is fully on the ball, even as it starts bouncing lower and the kids start to see who can catch it. It's only when Tidus speaks up that her gaze is drawn back to the guy next to her, Madoka slowly blinking as she stares into his eyes.

"Oh. Um.." She isn't so sure of that. And obviously so. But Madoka doesn't want to make this all about her, nor does she want to drag herself down when Tidus is kind enough to give her a compliment.

So she tries to smile after a moment.

"Thanks, Tidus. I'm sorry that you had to go ahead and do it though. I mean-- you must be really tired after everything!"

[blitzcheer]

"Too tired to kick a ball?" he asks with amusement, a grin that widens to show teeth. "No way, that's my job! I'd take a blitzball game right now if someone asked me for one!"

And there's enthusiasm in that statement, at the very least. The ball has finally been captured, and now the kids themselves are trying to make it go as high as Tidus did it; getting a good bounce, but not that amount.

"It's nice though, don't you think? Getting to see people happy - out in a town, just living their lives. All this open space. ...but-"

He groans, getting back down, letting his feet fold under him, then letting them sit outward, free. There's a nice wind coming from somewhere, brushing through his hair.

"--it would be nice after a nap. Well, I like it."

[happyends]

Please, Tidus! You can't just tire yourself out from a long mission and then hop straight into a blitzball game. What if a ball hits you right in the face!

It's not a protest that really exists within Madoka's mind though, especially since Tidus isn't about to hop into a game. Instead he's sitting down to rest again, and it makes the girl move behind him for a moment. Her hands land on his shoulders, giving him a very slight shoulder rub. Look, he earned it after doubtlessly doing his best this entire mission - and if she can provide some very slight relief, then Madoka is happy to help out.

Especially since the sight of the kids playing, happily laughing as they try catching each other's ball kicks, puts a smile on her face.

"It's nicer since we know we managed to do this, right..?"

Not in any ego-tripping way. This is Madoka, after all. But..

"It means we at least got to do something good." Even if the way they got around to it might not exactly have been ideal. But the work she's been doing on these missions - even if she's just one cog in the giant machine that is all the people on the train, it's still more than she ever managed to do before back home.

[blitzcheer]

The touch surprises Tidus, wondering for the first few seconds what it is Madoka's doing, what it means. A hug? A game? Using him as a rest and surface? But then he gets it as it continues a little longer - and it's cute, reminds him absently of that time back in Terra with Inigo. Makes him glad a the same time she isn't getting to where he's been getting an awful knot from using a blade.

"Mmm. I guess so." It takes him a second to think about it, her point, and he can't say she's completely wrong. Even if: "But, I'd be happy if they weren't in trouble in the first place. We could just hang around and chill out, and the towns people would be living their lives with no worries -- nothing that needs us saving them."

Something dull and mundane, but completely out of reach when you're stuck on a train. Except for in the movies, glimpses of life between whatever plot the story was following.

"What if we got to be like them for a week?"

Wouldn't that be nice? Just...normal.

[happyends]

Madoka hums softly, as if she agrees with the sentiment. The initial one, anyway. It'd be nice if people wouldn't be in danger, but the truth is probably that there's always danger in people everywhere, huh..? Even in her own seemingly peaceful world there had been people in danger all the time - and she just hadn't noticed.

Slowly Madoka stops rubbing his shoulders, instead moving to sit down next to Tidus.

"Hmm.. Do you want that, Tidus? I guess it would suit you." Is Madoka purposefully not talking about herself here? Or is it just part of her natural tendency to think of others before herself? Who knows. "I mean.. Not that you aren't good at fighting! And you're super helpful too! But.. um, I guess I can just easily imagine you leading a pretty normal life instead."

Maybe since Tidus just feels so normal when he's just talking and interacting with people. He's sociable, bright - even easily getting along with the kids here.

[blitzcheer]

"Well, you're the same to me." Tidus looks at her, pulling up a grin on his face before turning back down to the plaza, with the kids below with his ball. Asking, if with a pause separating the question from his remark: "If you didn't have to worry about what's coming, if there wasn't a problem at all - what would you do? Wouldn't you want something nice and easy, knowing everyone didn't have some big problem to worry about?"

He doesn't remember exactly her situation, or rather, the issue; but he also doesn't need to, when he can compare her to Yuna easy, feels the ripples of conversations he shared with her leading him now. It has to be, if there's no problem, if the world was safer. Because he already knows the answer when it isn't, when people choose sacrifices larger than themselves.

'I can't.'

[happyends]

"Of course."

Her voice is a little softer than a moment ago, but there's very little hesitation in her answer. He arms stretch out, hanging over her legs and her knees as she stares too at the kids. At how easily they're playing, totally free of worries, as if their city and world didn't almost get destroyed over the past week or so.

Little kids always forget easily, huh? They just live in the moment.

Madoka looks at Tidus. "Wouldn't anyone want that..? In the end, everyone wants to be happy. If I had the chance to go back home and be with papa, mama and my little brother again.. of course I would. Nothing would make me happier than just having a regular dinnertime with them again."

The thought makes her smile.

Even if she knows that it's not a possibility for her. But that doesn't mean she can't acknowledge how nice the little things seem in retrospective.

[blitzcheer]

It's nice, isn't it?

"You coulda said you wanted to go on an adventure." He looks to her, his smile small but cheery. Playful even, for what he's saying. "Slinging on your bow and arrow, going to all sorts of worlds to save every last one?"

Hah. There were even people like that, a face that easily returns to him, though it's not Drizzt he speaks of. "Allen, from Purple Team? White hair? He says he wants to go around being a performer. Travelling the world, being an entertainer!"

It's not astonishment he speaks with, like it's some desire that's baffling or perplexing to want. No; it's the fact there's something else about it - that it's so obtainable to the ordinary, so against what they do and forced to be here - that makes him want to announce it so, encouragingly. Lifting his spirits, no matter how tired they truly might be.

"I would," he says, sure. "If I had to go around to different cities playing blitzball...that'd be the dream!"

[happyends]

Madoka nods a little. She doesn't know Allen personally, but she recognizes the description. There's not a whole lot of people with white hair, after all. And while she doesn't know him enough to say whether or not it suits him, she still thinks it's nice - having a dream like that.

Tidus obviously does too, judging by the sheer passion he speaks with. It practically sparkles right off his face as she watches him while he talks.

"W-Well, I really would've been okay just staying in Mitakihara forever! As long as I'm with my family, and my friends, then that would've been enough.." Madoka certainly isn't the adventerous type, after all, let alone someone who dreams big. She didn't even have a single idea about what she wanted to do when she'd grow up.

But Tidus obviously has much more of an idea. Much more willing to throw himself into adventure - even if it's the slightly more mundane adventure of blitzball compared to what they're doing here.

"But I could imagine you traveling around, Tidus."