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Rei felt like he should probably like The Wallflower less than he did. Mainly because of Beni’s whole being-a-ninja deal.
But Beni had apologized and made good food. Food that Rei often got for free as an extended apology. So honestly, all was fine in his books.
He was there now, hanging out with Akari after a long day in the Fieldlands. There had been some massive mass outbreaks that morning and even more spacetime distortions that afternoon. It had all been fun, but Rei was ready for a break.
He was, however, kind of bored waiting for dinner. They had only ordered a few minutes ago, but it was a bit busier than usual so it would likely take a bit.
But, he also had remembered a game to pass the time.
“Hey, Akari,” Rei said, laying across the table. “Want to play a game?”
Akari looked up from her drawing. “What game?”
“It’s called Poké. I remembered it the other day.”
“I always wanna play future games!” Akari said, rushing to put away her stuff.
Rei dug out an acceptable coin. “Fair warning, we’ll both probably end up bleeding. Not too badly.”
Akari paused a moment, then finished cleaning up. “Eh, whatever. I still want to learn about the future game.”
“Alright,” Rei laughed. He handed over the coin. “Here, spin this on its side.”
Akari did.
“You want to try to stop the coin on its side with one finger.” Rei went for it, failing immediately. “I don’t think I’ve done this in a while.”
“Oh well,” Akari said. “We’ll be on equal playing ground then.”
“True.” Rei gave Akari the coin again, then set his fist knuckles down, on the table. “Now you get to slide that across the table as hard as you can at my hands because I didn’t stop the coin.”
Akari grinned. Rei couldn’t help comparing her to her Pikachu when he got eyes on a berry.
She launched the coin. It connected with a sharp pain and a dull thud.
“Shit,” Rei hissed, shaking out his hand. “You can really launch that thing.”
Akari laughed at him. “Spin the coin! I want to try!”
They went back and forth for a while. Rei managed to get better at stopping the coin, muscle memory kicking in he assumed. Akari managed top get it a few times, but mainly she kept missing. She didn’t seem to upset by that at least.
Akari spun the coin, chanting, “Miss, miss, miss, miss.”
Rei focused on the coin. Akari kept chanting.
“What are you two playing?” Ingo, of all people, interrupted, “If you do not mind me asking.”
Rei slammed the coin down, cutting off Akari and making her jump. “Nothing!”
He was going to kill them. Mr. Safety-Checks was not going to enjoy a game where the main goal was hurting each other possibly to the point of blood. Which they had already done! They were so dead.
“You aren’t in trouble!” Ingo said, taking a step back and putting his hands up in surrender. “I was just curious.”
Rei squinted at him. “Curious how?”
“I- Um...” Ingo’s face started to brighten as he pulled his hat down. “I admit I have been watching your game for a few minutes now and well... I can’t help but feel that it is familiar somewhat.”
Rei could only blink. Familiar? How?
“Rei said it’s called Poké,” Akari said when he still hadn’t made a sound. “Do you wanna learn the rules, Warden Ingo?”
“If you don’t mind.” Ingo sat down next to Akari. “And just Ingo is fine.”
“Okay, Mr. Ingo!” Akari began prying Rei’s hand off the table. “C’mon, Rei, let go of the coin and explain the rules.”
Rei lifted his hand up and took the coin. “Um, if you’re sure...”
Ingo nodded. “I am. I will leave you alone afterwards as well. I simply wish to see if I can remember something about my past.”
“Okay then...” Still unsure how Ingo would take their game, Rei held the coin on its edge. “The first part of the game is I’m gonna spin the coin. You got to stop it on its edge with only one finger.”
“Full steam ahead, Rei,” Ingo encouraged, watching the coin closely.
Rei spun it. Ingo watched it for a second before attempting to stop it. Unsurprisingly, he failed, the coin landing on its flat side.
“You lose!” Akari laughed. “Don’t worry, Mr. Ingo, I’ve only managed it a few times. Rei’s really good at it though.”
“I told you that’s probably just muscle memory,” Rei joked back, trying to distract himself from how Ingo would react to the next part. “I won’t do it if you don’t want to, but since you lost, I’m supposed to fling the coin at your knuckles as hard as I can. Again! I won’t do it if you don’t-”
“Do it.”
“What?”
Ingo put his fists down, knuckles against the table. Rei would swear he had the smallest of smiles. “Do it.”
No way.
Rei couldn’t help but smirk back. “If you insist,” he said, then flung the coin as fast as possible.
It connected with a hollow thud and a hiss from Ingo. He shook his hand out.
“That wasn’t too bad,” he said, inspecting it. “It didn’t even break ski- Bloody Knuckles! That’s what it’s called!”
“Wait, you know this game?” Rei asked.
Ingo tilted his head. “I mentioned finding it familiar, did I not? Or did I skip that part.”
“You mentioned it,” Akari chimed in.
“I think I was too busy worrying that you were going to kill us for playing this game to remember that,” Rei admitted. “The only thing other than the rules I remembered about Poké was that my parents hate it.”
“I understand why, it isn’t the safest of games.” Ingo’s half smirk was back. “However, I believe we played it without the first part.”
“Oh, you were one of those people,” Rei said, fake judgement in his voice.
“I suppose we were,” Ingo laughed. “I’ve remembered a couple other games we played as kids somewhat recently. Would you two like to learn them?”
Akari and Rei slammed their hands on the table, both shouting, “PLEASE!”
Ingo laughed again. “Okay, okay! The first is also called Bloody Knuckles. Don’t ask me why the two games have the same name, I don’t know. I’ll teach you the rules, but perhaps hold off on playing it. Both of your hands look pretty beaten up already.”
Rei looked at his hands, then over at Akari’s. They each had at least one spot that was bleeding and several others that were close. “Fair enough.”
Ingo held his fist out, backs facing the sky. “Step one is to do this.”
Rei and Akari copied.
“Step two is to hit each other until there’s blood. The one bleeding loses. I will demonstrate gently. Then you two can each get a free swing on me, I suppose.”
Slowly, just to show the technique, Ingo tapped his fists against Rei’s then Akari’s knuckles.
Ingo held his fists out in front of him again. With a small grimace, he said, “You’re turn. Feel free not to hold back.”
Akari swung first, clearly not at full power.
Rei had no such qualms.
Thwak!
Ingo yanked his hands back with a yelp. “Sinnoh! Fuck!”
He went bright red as Rei and Akari stared at him, trying not to laugh.
“I didn’t say that.”
They kept staring.
“Stop it.”
A snicker escaped Akari. Rei snorted.
“Knock it off or I won’t teach you the other game.”
They both managed to compose themselves.
Ingo took a breath. “Thank you. Anyway, the other one is called Five Fingers. I think you’re technically supposed to use a knife, but that’s too dangerous. We just used a stick. Personally, I’d rather the risk of getting wood embedded in me rather than slicing a finger off.”
“Why can’t we use a knife?” Akari asked.
“Did you not hear me about slicing a finger off? If you’re going to do something dumb, at least be safe about it.” Ingo looked around, finding a stick under the table. “That way you will only get in trouble for the dumb thing and not seriously injuring yourselves.”
“That sounds like it comes from experience,” Rei joked.
Ingo put his left hand on the table, fingers splayed. He paused with the right holding the stick just below his thumb. Rei could see his grip loosen and his eyes start to glaze over.
“Rei, you broke him,” Akari joked.
“Yeah, yeah.” Rei waved her off. “Give him a second.”
A few seconds passed with no change from Ingo.
“Rei?” Akari sounded nervous. “Are you sure he’s okay?”
“Ingo?” Rei gave him a light nudge.
Ingo jumped. “Let me introduce myself again. I am a… What’s going on?”
“You were going to teach us a game,” Akari said. “You zoned out before you could.”
Ingo blinked and shook his head. “Yes, that is right. Thank you, and my apologies for that.”
“You alright?” Rei asked.
Ingo nodded. “I am. I think I was remembering something, but it’s gone now.” He tapped the small faded black dot just under the thumb joint. “I think it had something to do with this old scar. But that is unimportant right now. Back to the game.”
He returned the stick to its original position. “The aim of the game is to not hurt yourself while stabbing the stick between your fingers as fast as possible.”
Ingo stabbed the table in the space between his thumb and forefinger, then returned it to below this thumb. He moved to the space between his forefinger and middle finger, then back to below his thumb again. He repeated the process with all the spaces between his fingers.
“Then you speed up,” Ingo said, doing another cycle faster.
“I wanna try!” Akari said. Ingo stopped and handed her the stick.
Rei found another stick and started himself. He did one round slowly, then sped up as muscle memory kicked in.
“I think I played this too,” he laughed after a minute.
“Glad to see kids are still playing potentially dangerous games.” Ingo stood up with a stretch. “That is all the games I remember. I hope you have fun and if you get hurt, I didn’t teach you these. Like I said before, I will be going now.”
Akari and Rei both paused their stick stabbing.
“Aw,” Akari whined. “You can stay if you want to.”
“Yeah,” Rei added. “Beni is probably going to show up with our food soon anyway.”
“I should probably eat,” Ingo mumbled. “Okay! I will stay for refueling. Then, I should be off if I am to reach the Highlands before it gets too late."
“Yay!” they both cheered just as Beni showed up.
It didn’t take long for Ingo to order his own dinner. Luckily things had slowed down, so he got his dinner a lot quicker than Rei and Akari. Soon enough, they were all enjoying their food.
“Oh, Ingo!” Rei said as they were finishing up. “I forgot to mention. I think I remembered being from a small town. That’s were I got the game from. Do you think you’re also from a small town?”
Ingo frowned, stirring the last but if his soup. “I am not sure. I have… vague feelings of tall buildings. Of crowds of people and Pokemon. Of fast-moving vehicles. However…”
Rei tool another bite of mochi as Ingo paused, eyes getting a far away look. Maybe he should have waited to ask.
“There is… something else,” Ingo surprisingly continued. His voice was softer than Rei thought possible. “Older, I think. Tall trees and dirt paths and an old wooden dock. Splinters and rocks and splashes of water. Someone by my side.”
Rei and Akari glanced at each other. Ingo liked to share what scraps he remembered when they came up, but none had felt as personal as this.
Ingo shook his head and took a breath. “Perhaps it is as you say, Rei. Maybe I did grow up in a small town.” He gave a small laugh. “But if I think about that too much right now, I believe I’ll zone out too hard to leave the village. Thank you, you two, for inviting me to dinner and letting me share the games I know with you.”
“Thanks for coming,” Rei said.
“And thanks for the games!” Akari added. “I can’t wait to teach them to everyone else.”
Rei laughed. “They’ll never believe it was you of all people who told us them first!”
Ingo finished his soup and stood up with a laugh of his own. “I teach you two some games and you make fun of me for it! Honestly, you’re just a couple of… Grubbins? What in Sinnoh’s name is a Grubbin?” He waved the thought away. “I will figure that out later. I should be departing now. Have a good night you two.”
“You too!” Rei and Akari said together as Ingo walked off.
“Do you have any idea what a Grubbin is?” Akari asked.
Rei shrugged. “No idea.”
“Kinda sounds like a Pokemon.”
“Maybe we should ask the Prof?” Rei yawned. “Tomorrow though. I’m ready for bed.”
Akari shoved him with a laugh. “It isn’t even that late! The sun is just starting to set.”
Rei leaned on Akari, pinning her to the bench, and closed his eyes. “You’re my bed now. Good night.”
“Reiiiiii!”