Chapter 12: Fare thee well Setzer, See ya later Rinoa!
As soon as Setzer landed, the audience cascaded into the street to mob the young teen hero as if he were the next big idol. Before he could react, he was surrounded by the crowd with no escape. They started asking questions that he didn’t know the answer to and started panicking, looking for an escape path. He kept looking back and forth for an opening, any opening.
PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!
The sound of a whistle blasted throughout the square, piercing the eardrums of the entire crowd. Covering their ears to protect their hearing, everyone looked in the direction of the source of the irritating sound to see Perez blowing on a brass referee’s whistle as hard as he can. Once he ran out of breath, and caught the attention of everyone in a three block radius, he returned it to his pocket.
“Okay, that’s enough. Break it up! Break it up!” Perez ordered, shoeing away the crowd with an annoyed look on his face. The crowd dispersed, groaning with annoyance for being dismissed. As the crowd left, Perez wandered up with a big smile on his face.
“Thanks for the save.” Buddy chuckled nervously, breathing a sigh of relief. Perez couldn’t help but laugh in amusement.
“No problem.” The elder man chirped, resting his fists on his hips. “I must say, that was amazing. You are deceptively strong.”
“Really?” Buddy replied. His thoughts momentarily went back to his experience with the Keyblade in the antique store. Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t something that would be considered ‘normal.’ He realized that he would have to think about it later.
“BUDDY!!” a familiar high pitched squeal screamed out in joy. He barely turned around to see the source, when he was glomped by an excited Olette, capturing him into a big bear hug.
’BUDDYTHATWASSOCOOLHOWDIDYOUDOTHATYOUACTUALLYBEATSETZER!!” She squealed in one breath, her arms still wrapped around the exasperated Buddy, unable to free himself from the girl's grip.
”Olette…. you’re…..crushing…….me”. Buddy whispered, unable to take in air from Olette’s monster hug. Rinoa, as always, follows a step behind the girl.
“OLETTE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LET HIM GO! HE’S STARTING TO TURN BLUE!” the educator shouted, catching the attention of the girl. Olette immediately released the blond haired teen, and he took in a deep breath, his lungs freed from the girl’s grip.
This girl is detrimental to my health!
“Sorry!” She said shyly, tilting her head slightly in a show of innocence. “But I couldn’t help myself. That was just so cool!”
“That was impressive.” Rinoa stated, repeating Perez’s and Olette’s sentiments.
“Thanks!” he replied with slight embarrassment, his cheeks blushing slightly. But the red quickly faded from his cheeks as he stood around as if a slight thought was rolling around in his head. “But he really didn’t seem all that strong. What was the big deal about that guy?”
“Well…” Perez drawled, thinking back a couple years. “I guess you could say he’s a victim of his own success.”
“Huh?” The three chanted in unison, not sure of the meaning behind Perez’s remark.
“Back before he became the champion, he would train day in and day out, all to claim the Struggle championship. When he finally claimed it, challengers started calling him out almost daily. Eventually, as he started defeating more and more people, the challengers stopped coming, saying that it was a futile effort to Struggle against him, calling him unbeatable! With no one to challenge him, Setzer wasn’t practicing as much as he used to, and eventually he stopped training all together. Instead, he just spent all of his time showboating and gambling his life away, thinking that he was unstoppable.”
“I see…” Rinoa whispered loudly with a look of empathy on her face. “I guess it was only a matter of time before somebody brought him down. When he fell, he fell hard and fast. It makes me wonder if somebody like him could actually have the strength to recover.”
By this time, Setzer had gotten up and had already walked over to where his coat laid. Feeling like he should say something, Buddy walked over to him as Setzer kneeled to retrieve his coat, stopping a few feet away.
“Uh, hey Setzer…” Buddy muttered nervously, scratching his cheek slightly. Setzer paused as he kneeled down, his hand on his coat. He didn’t bother to turn his head and look the youth in the face. Buddy couldn’t think of exactly what to say to consol solemn champion. He improvised and thrust out his fist into the air, thumb sticking straight up, and gave a wink with his with his right eye. “Good match!”
“You…. You beat me.” Setzer said in a hushed, almost whisper like tone as the reality of what happened slowly sunk in. He slowly retrieved his coat and stood back up.
“Yeah… I guess I did.” Buddy replied, a little uncomfortable at the moment. He fidgeted slightly.
I hope he doesn’t carry a grudge.
“I… I feel… humbled.” The champion lamented, still not looking towards the boy, now joined by the others, observing silently. Setzer quietly returned his coat over his shoulders, still not facing the group.
“Hey, it’s not like the match meant anything! Don’t take it so hard!” the teen replied. He stuck out his right hand, palm open, in a gesture of friendship. “Bygones?”
Setzer paused for a moment, and then quickly turned around and grabbed the boy’s and pulled nervously in slightly, looking deep into the boy’s eyes. Buddy gulped nervously as Setzer glared at him with intensity.
“It’s up to you now.” He dictated with authority. “I’m leaving it to you to represent Twilight Town. Don’t lose.” He then released Buddy’s hand and quickly walked away.
”Wait!” Buddy called out after him through cupped hands.
”What do you mean?”
It was too late though, as Setzer disappeared into the crowd. All Buddy could think to say was “You forgot your Struggle bat.”
He then noticed an envelope in his right hand. Setzer must have slipped it in when he grabbed it. “What’s this?”
Why don’t you open it to find out?” Olette stated, a little curious as to what it could be.
“Okay, okay…” Budd said. He noticed that the top of the envelope was already cut open. He reached in and pulled out a ticket with the words ‘Special Pass’ emblazed on it, followed by a lot of fine print.
“GAH!” Perez gasped, taken back by the sight of the slip of paper. “That’s a pass to go straight past the preliminaries matches and straight into the first round of the Struggle Slam!”
“NO WAY!” The two females said loudly in disbelief.
”WHY WOULD SETZER GIVE AWAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!”
“This may sound stupid…” Buddy muttered, once again finding himself out of the loop. “But what’s ‘struggle Slam?’ Is it some kind of tournament?”
“Only the
biggest Struggle tournament EVER!” Olette explained loudly. “It’s the only thing that Struggle junkie
Hayner has been able to talk about all summer!”
“It is?” Buddy replied, not seeing the significance of the statement. Rinoa, who noticed that really did nothing to alleviate the boy’s confusion, decided to step in.
“Vague much Olette?” Rinoa scoffed, and then turned towards Buddy. ”Basically, it’s a tri-annual tournament, attracting Strugglers from across the continent. The first round is a free-for-all battle against all the qualifying Strugglers, Taking a whole day with the ring being a entire section of Dawn City, the largest on the continent! At the end of the day, the eight Strugglers with the best scores remaining are the winners and move on to the final rounds.”
“Wow, really?” Buddy gasped, impressed with the sheer scope one tournament could have. “And I suppose that since he was a champion, he was given a free pass into the first round without having to go through the prelims?”
“Yep.” Perez replied. “The champions of all of the major areas are given such a pass. Most of them tend to use it to stake out the first round area, Downtown Dawn city, and find places to pick off other contestants one by one.”
“But why would Setzer give me something like this?” Buddy inquired, staring at the ticket. Perez had a look of contemplation and wonderment about him as he looked on in the direction of Setzer’s departure.
“It’s because you reminded him of why he became a struggler in the first place.” Perez stated with his hands held behind his back, sounding almost like a scholar imparting ancient wisdom to a new generation.
“What do you mean?” The youth inquired. Perez heaved a sigh as he went off on a tangent to the conversation. The three others listened intently.
“When I first met Setzer, struggling was his dream. He wanted so much to improve, to become better than he already was. I saw something in the lad that I knew could be the potential for something grand. Back then, he wasn’t anything like he is today. He was considerate, kind, and valued fairness above all else. It seemed like he was doing all the right things. But then…”
Perez turned around, and with a solemn look on his face, he shook his head in disappointment.
“But then he finally managed to win Twilight Town’s Championship. And as I’ve said before, that was when everything went sour. He stopped practicing, started gambling, and began carrying that god awful ego around with him where ever he went. I still can’t believe how it could have gone so wrong.”
Perez walked over towards Buddy and placed his hand on the youth’s shoulder and looked in the boy’s eyes with a smile on his face.
“But you reminded him of something very important. He thought he was the strongest there was until he lost to you. It helped him realize that the old saying was true: ‘There is always someone better.’ Someone who is better Struggler, a better fighter, and a better person. If he remembers this, then I have no doubt that there’s hope for him. As long as he carries this in his heart, I have no doubt that he will make that ‘someone better’ himself.”
Perez looks back down the street, a look of certainty on his face.
“When he returns, I have no doubt that he will be a stronger opponent.”
“Anyways…” He said as he turned back towards the three. “It’s time I got back to my wife. If she comes out of the store and notices that I’m gone, there will be hell to pay!”
He grabbed the struggle bat from Buddy and replaced it with the munny sack, already containing the roll of fifty thousand munny.
“You should really consider fighting in Struggle Slam.” He encouraged, grinning like the fanatic that he is. “I would love to see more of your moves. And don’t worry about the Struggle bat! I’ll make sure it gets returned to Setzer.”
He walked off, leaving the three standing in a dumbfounded silence until Olette broke it, saying “Man, Hayner is going to be
sooo pissed when he finds out.”
“I’d… imagine.” Rinoa replied, not really paying attention. Buddy suddenly snapped out of his amazement, and rummaged through his munny sack.
“Rinoa?” He said, catching the teacher’s attention. He plopped the roll of munny into her hands. Rinoa’s jaw immediately hit the floor at the astronomical amount for a teenager to have.
“B-B-B-BUT HOW!? WHY!? WHAT FOR!?” She stuttered in exasperation. Olette was stunned silent to see some who she knew didn’t have a munny to his name suddenly had more munny than her, even if she saved up for a year.
“Setzer said I had to ‘bet’ to play. All I had was the munny you gave me. It wouldn’t be right for me to keep it”
“That’s nice but…” Rinoa drawled uncomfortably, trying to resist the temptation of pocketing the munny, she grabbed Buddy’s hand and placed the roll in, closing the hand into a fist. Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay being a good citizen. “I gave that munny to you. It was yours to keep and do with what you wished. I couldn’t just take it back from you.”
“But—“
“No buts!” She said sharply and with a slight glare. Buddy could see that there was no way for him to win, so he turned to Olette and opened his munny pouch containing eighty-one hundred munny.
“How much do I owe you for the clothes?” He asked the brightly dressed girl. Olette tilted her head slightly and crossed her arms in a pose of mock thought.
“Tell you what…” She said slyly, leaning towards him slightly. “You treat me to sea salt ice cream, and we’ll call it even okay?”
“Fine…” The youth conceded, realizing that arguing with her would be equally pointless. The two girls giggled at the defeated youth.
“Well, I’ve got to get going.” Olette said with a smile. “It was nice meeting you Buddy. Olette, remember what we talked about!”
“I will! See you later Ms. Heartily!” Olette called out.
“Nice meeting you too!” Buddy replied after the woman.
“See you guys around!” she called out with a wave as she walked away into the crowd.
Chapter 12: Fare thee well Setzer, So long Rinoa: End
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Author's Notes:
Sorry about the double post.
Anyways, I decided to let Setzer go with his Dignity intact. I figured what's left of it could get destroyed in KH2. I did plan on him returning later, but figured that having him go bye bye would work better for the story, and be easier overall.
And we will be seeing Rinoa again, but not for a while. She still has a part to play.
If things work out like I intend, we should be out of Mall Street in the next four chapters at the least. I feel like I'm spending too much time here. But some cool stuff happens before they leave, and I'm getting really antsy about this one cool seen about-- Well you're just gonna have to find out.
And another quick announcement: I decided that I should update on a weekly basis, on a specified day. I'm not sure which though, so I'm leaving that decision up to you guys! post the day that you think would work best!
Until the next chapter, Let's keep doing our best!:thumbup:
