CYOA 2 – To The Victor Go The Spoils – Chapter 23: Blind Trust

Last time: Hanzo had a bit of down time which he filled with tormenting a very willing Cassidy. He also got his last partner for the third trial: Salandit – alongside a distressing ultimatum by Reinhardt. Will he succeed?

Warnings/content: nothing specific!

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Mister Wilhelm’s very serious expression breaks as soon as he as he tells Hanzo about his plan, his hands coming down on his shoulders, lightly pressing down on him as if worried Hanzo might just float away without. It sure does feel like it, in any case. Like a rug has been pulled from under his feet.

“Oh, don’t you look like that! I am confident you and your Salandit will master the trial just like you have mastered the rest! You do not have to be alarmed in the slightest, my boy!” His fingers dig in a little, broad fingertips pressing into Hanzo’s muscles and bones. Not painfully so; just ten points of pressure as the giant of a man leans over him and makes him once more very aware of their height difference and how desperately horny Hanzo has been for him.

He doesn’t want to be horny for him. Not right now after this egregious offer – demand? – that Mister Wilhelm has put before him.

The giant is leaning even further down, bringing his mouth next to Hanzo’s ear, voice husky as he has it for once lowered into a whisper instead of shouting at what feels like the top of his lungs. His next words stun Hanzo even more than his earlier offer of taking one of his Pokémon off of him: “In fact, I am so confident in your success, I would like to offer you a boon for when you win, my boy. I have noticed you and Cole are very… fond of each other… and I have noticed the way you look at me with those beautiful eyes of yours.”

Hanzo can feel himself growing hot and cold, unsure what embarrasses him more: Mister Wilhelm apparently knowing about him and Cassidy or him having seen Hanzo all but salivating over his huge, fit body.

“I would love to… play with the both of you afterwards. If you are amenable to it, that is.” His hands slide from Hanzo’s shoulders to instead curl around his biceps, squeezing nice and firm, the warmth of his palms seeping easily through his sleeves and leaving his skin prickling.

Hanzo opens his mouth but he does not know what to say. He feels like anything he could reply would sound exceptionally thirsty and needy.

He is spared the indignity by Lúcio strolling over to ask whether they are done talking.

“I’ve scoped out an awesome place; we should grab something to eat there before you start preparing for your last trial, okay?”

.oOo.

“He didn’t give you any clues?” Lúcio asks as they sit at the restaurant he had ‘scoped out’, waiting for their food. Hanzo shrugs one shoulder and shakes his head. He hadn’t told him about Mister Wilhelm’s proposals… neither the one if he were to lose or the one if he were to win. While he feels like Lúcio would be suitably shocked about the weirdly threatening offer to take Kikuri off his hands, he is not in the mood right now to talk about any of it. He wants to keep his mind on the trial as such. He can’t let himself be distracted by Mister Wilhelm.

Maybe that is part of the trial as well?

He’s getting paranoid. Akkala Island was absolutely beautiful but by now Hanzo can feel himself getting stir crazy. He needs to get back on the road but before he can do that, he needs to best the last trial.

The fact that he feels more like Kikuri is the obstacle instead of the trial as such is humbling… to say the least.

He releases her from her Pokéball but she seems not particularly interested in communicating with him. In fact, she ignores both him and Lúcio, sitting herself on the table as if she were just one more person invited to their meal, and grabs food off of both their plates to eat.

She truly is a piece of work… though Hanzo can’t say that he doesn’t enjoy her. King has been troubling as well at first but eventually warmed up to Hanzo and grew up a little. Maybe Kikuri just needed a bit more time? It also is just in her nature to act like this, he supposes. In the wild she would have a whole harem of male Salandit at her beck-and-call, ready to go hunt for her and take care of her every need.

He wonders how other Salandit trainers go about this… quirkiness, but in the end it does not particularly help. One way or another he and Kikuri will have to work together and she will have to listen to him.

Or is it another case of him underestimating his own Pokémon? Should he stand back and watch her do her thing? After all, she had been rather competent despite her having acted out of turn.

Hanzo sighs, leaning back and rubbing both hands over his face. Lúcio is throwing him a worried look, so he shrugs one shoulder and grabs his fork again, muttering: “This is just a very… frustrating experience. I am trying to anticipate what Mister Wilhelm is trying to teach me but I find myself constantly running into the wrong direction.”

Lúcio hums, eying Kikuri until her crescent moon eyes suddenly fix him with a rather mean look, so he quickly focuses back on Hanzo’s face.

“Honestly? I get it. It’s kind of a mind fuck, right? So maybe try to just… not think so much and go with the flow. Like surfing. Oh- how about we try that before we leave the island, huh? Seems kind of like a waste to be on Akkala Island and never having hit the waves?”

Hanzo’s lips twitch in a wry little smile. He wishes it were as easy as that. His neurotic nature doesn’t lend itself easily to ‘just not think so much’, but he gets what Lúcio is trying to tell him and what he is attempting to do by suddenly switching the topic to surfing.

Maybe he should try and go along with it for once. He nods and shifts a little in his chair, exhaling long and slow.

“Yes, you are probably right. Let us see about renting some boards after our meal.”

.oOo.

Lúcio’s suggestion did wonders which surprises Hanzo to no end. It’s not that he hadn’t really trusted in him but… he also isn’t the kind to just let go of his worries and instead enjoy his life. That’s more Genji’s thing. He likes to think, though, that he can make it his thing as well.

He is relaxed when he gets to Mister Wilhelm’s huge estate. The exercise has left him sleeping soundly and it had honestly been fun trying to learn to surf with Lúcio.

Anxiety does start to worm its way around his throat, though, when he has to give away Kikuri’s Pokéball to Balderich who assures him that they just need to get her ready and she’ll be returned to him with not a single scale out of place.

Of course they wouldn’t hurt her. Of course. But it does make him wonder what kind of game Mister Wilhelm has thought of this time.

He is led into what he assumes is the same arena as they had used during his first trial, but it looks completely different this time around.

There is a large pool in the middle with a narrow, winding pathway going over the top of the calm water. On the other side are four Pokémon sitting there lined up, all of them exceptionally large; a Tropius, a Drapion, a Drampa and an Alolan Exeggutor. They’re all sitting there, looking sleepy and tame. The Exeggutor’s long neck is slowly swaying back and forth like a pendulum which is quite distracting in and off itself.

Hanzo is still surveying it all when the door to the side opens and out step Mister Wilhelm and Cole. Cole, for some reason, has decided to not wear his usual pseudo cowboy get-up and instead has donned just a pair of shorts, exactly like Mister Wilhelm.

Taken aback, Hanzo focuses on their… impressive physiques so much that it takes him a lot longer than he would have liked to notice Kikuri in Cole’s arms where he has to hold all four of her legs and press her against his chest so she wouldn’t worm her way out of his hold. The reason he’s carrying her is easy to discern: they have put a tiny leather mask over her bald head, much like one would do to train an easily reactive bird Pokémon.

It’s not hard to see that she Does Not Like being blind.

“Well!” Mister Wilhelm claps into his pan sized hands. Hanzo jumps on the spot, his heart beating a fast staccato against his ribs. Even Kikuri has suddenly stopped wriggling and is just sitting in Cole’s big hands, stiff as a wet cat, and looking about as comfortable. “Welcome to your last trial, trainer! You have been very impressive and I do not doubt that you will master this challenge as well! I like to think that I have maybe helped you a little on your way to become better partners with your Pokémon!”

Mister Wilhelm is beaming over his whole face. He looks so much like a kind grandpa that it almost distracts from the impressive circumference of his biceps or the fact that Hanzo is pretty sure he is freeballing it under his garishly colored shorts, the heft of his cock swinging against the front when he walks just too noticeable and distracting.

God, he wants to climb him like a tree. He probably is just as loud in bed, babbling praise while he fucks like a bull-

“You are probably wondering about today’s trial! Well, let me explain it to you and your Pokémon, it will make things a little easier!”

Hanzo snaps out of his thirsty daydreams, focusing on Mister Wilhelm’s words. This is neither the time nor place to wonder about whether he can get his insides rearranged by a cock.

Cole is also staring at him with a weird expression. He does not look angry, but certainly curious. It doesn’t help that his hirsute body is on display. Goddamn sexy ogre-

“It is simple, Hanzo! Guide your Pokémon over to the other side and have her fetch the crown from one of my Pokémon! As soon as she has it in her grasp, the trial is done and you have won!”

Crown? Hanzo peers over to the four huge Pokémon idly sitting in a line. It takes him a while to see that indeed the Tropius has a tiny flower crown hanging from the tip of its head at the moment.

“I… see,” he says after a moment of watching the prize hanging from the Pokémon who is looking like it is about to fall asleep. He wonders just how old these four Pokémon really are. “How long do we have?”

“45 minutes!” Mister Wilhelm beams at him. Indeed, it sounds like a very generous time but when he thinks about the fact that he’ll have to guide Kikuri through it who has started wriggling in Cole’s grasp again, he wonders if that will be anywhere near enough. She is not the most patient of Pokémon. Amongst other things.

“Of course I don’t have to say but I will do so anyway: if your Pokémon takes off its blindfold, the trial will be ended on the spot and you will have lost!”

Hanzo nods. He had thought as much.

“Are you ready?”

“I am,” he replies quietly, his nerves briefly reaching a crescendo before he thinks of the waves at the beach and his muscles relax again. The fact that he can smell Cole also helps, weirdly enough. The stupid dirty cowboy must not have showered today…

“Very well, then! Let us begin!”

Mister Wilhelm gestures toward Cole who goes on one knee and carefully sits Kikuri down who immediately skitters away, throwing her head left and right as if to throw off the little leather mask that someone has carefully wrapped around her tiny head. He can even see the bow under her chin; it would be comical if it weren’t such a serious moment.

Hanzo is just about to tell her off when she stops throwing her head around and stands there in an awkward spread-eagle stance, her tail held stiffly. She is obviously not happy with things but also unwilling to lose.

Well, at least they have that in common.

“Good luck,” Cole mutters with a crooked grin before he and Mister Wilhelm leave.

.oOo.

Reinhardt’s massive arm curls around Cole’s shoulders the moment the door closes behind him. He pulls him against his side, voice uncharacteristically lowered as he murmurs: “You have seen his gaze, yes?”

Cole snorts softly. “Wasn’t hard not to notice,” he mutters back, peering up to see how Reinhardt is twisting the tip of his mustache with a very pleased expression. “Can’t believe this worked.”

He looks down at himself, though he can’t deny that he is exceedingly pleased about Hanzo’s reaction. It’s not like he hadn’t seen him naked before, after all… seems like his babydoll is even thirstier than he anticipated.

“Of course it did! And I am sure he will be very interested in my proposal later!”

Reinhardt gives Cole another friendly squeeze before he lets go of him and claps into his hands, rubbing them together.

Cole glances down. It’s not difficult to see the half-chub the old guy has going on at the prospect of playing with Hanzo. Can’t fault him for that.

“Well yeah. Let’s see if he makes it through the trial first, though. Don’t think he’ll be in a mood to spread his legs if that spicy li’l Salandit put stones in his way.”

.oOo.

Hanzo stares at Kikuri and Kikuri, well… she can’t stare back, can she? She is still standing there on widely spread legs, still as a statue except for her head lightly moving whenever the water in the pool makes a little sound as it hits the edge of the basin.

“Okay. Okay, listen to me.” He comes closer and squats down next to her. “The arena is separated by a pool of water. You can hear that, right? And there’s a small plank going across it. It’s not straight, though, so I’ll guide you. You don’t want to get wet, right?”

Kikuri’s tongue briefly flicks out before she suddenly moves forward a few cautious steps until she can hook one clawed foot over the lip of the pool. She starts wandering one direction along the obstacle, keeping her foot at the lip to guide her. Honestly, it is quite ingenious… but she is walking away from the plank, instead of toward it.

“Stop, Kikuri – you need to go the other direction.”

She pauses briefly. He can visibly see her struggle as she seems to debate simply ignoring him, but eventually she does turn around with ill grace, once again using her claw to lead her along the lip of the pool. She hisses whenever a bit of water touches her claws, the red marking on her butt that trails down her tail glowing brighter every time it happens.

Eventually she does find the plank and carefully creeps her way on top of it. Hanzo wonders how he himself would fare being blindfolded and having to walk over what would be the equivalent of burning coals to him. Would he be this fearless? She is so small and fierce…

“You’re coming up to a crossing. You need to go left; there is only a very short plank to the right.”

By now Mister Wilhelm and Cole have arrived in the balcony overlooking the scenery but they’re quiet and Hanzo is not paying any attention to them. His focus lies on the trial – and on Kikuri who has arrived at said crossing and is, after a moment of contemplation, turning right.

“Wait-!”

She slips briefly. His heart plummets to his feet as she sees his Pokémon flailing, her tail hitting the water and producing an immediate angry hiss and a plume of smoke before she manages to hectically scrabble her way back up onto the plank, standing there stiffly as she did before.

He can see her narrow chest heaving; honestly, she’s not that far out yet but blindfolded it must seem like she’s alone on an open sea.

“You need to listen to me.” He tries for calm but is not sure where he lands on that front. He has a knack for sounding like he’s lecturing and he does not think that that would get him far with Kikuri. “I’m not sending you to your doom. I want to win this just as much as you do.” He breathes deeply, unclenching his hands which had curled into tight, anxious fists when she was on the verge of falling into the water. “You’re currently facing the right direction. Just move forward, okay? I will tell you when something changes.”

But she does not move. She just stands there, frozen into a statue. Only her tongue flickers out every now and then to taste the air.

“Kikuri…” he takes a few steps closer until he is at the very edge of the pool. If he were to stretch out carefully, he could still scoop her up, but… that would disqualify them. He squats down. “Listen. Just put one foot in front of the other, okay? It’s not a very wide pond. You’re about… 10% done. You can do it.”

He’s so damn shitty in encouraging others – but he does feel like the past two trials have made him a bit better at it, at least. Not that Kikuri seems to share the sentiment. She just keeps standing there, stiff as a board and obviously trying to figure out what to do from there.

“I want to win just as much as you,” he hisses. “Why don’t you trust me?”

She swings her tail in a lash but finally takes a cautious step forward. Then another one. Hanzo sighs in relief.

“There you go. Keep moving forward. I’ll tell you when to stop in advance. It’s not long over the water. There are four Pokémon and you’ll have to climb the Tropius to get the crown-” He glances up as he says it and pauses when there is, in fact, no crown hanging from the tip of the Pokémon’s head.

“Where is it?!” He stands abruptly, eyes scanning the Tropius – but there is no sign of the crown anywhere on its body… or on the ground, for that matter. Kikuri has halted briefly at his outburst but ultimately kept on creeping her way along the path. Hanzo looks back down again just in time to tell her to stop.

“Turn right, slowly… stop. Move forward.”

He wonders how a task like this would have gone with Maddox. While he does have some newfound respect for the pup’s tenacity, he’s suitably sure that he has no idea what ‘right’ and ‘left’ even is.

Kikuri moves slowly but she is no longer actively ignoring his instructions, which is huge in his book. A part of him had wondered if they would even get through the first half of the trial.

In-between he peers up toward the four old Pokémon sitting in a row. They move so little, they seem like stuffed animals, and yet… eventually he does spy the crown again – sitting right on Drampa’s nose. How had it even gotten there?

He briefly peers up toward Cole and Mister Wilhelm. There’s a funny little twinkle in the old man’s eyes. Of course he would have instructed his Pokémon to do some… funny business.

From the corner of his eyes he sees movement and just about catches as the Drampa jerks up his nose and blows softly, easily pushing the little crown up into the air… higher and higher until it finally vanishes inside the large leafs on top of the Alolan Exeggutor’s head.

Of course.

Of course it does.

He mutters a soft “Damn,” wiping the sweat from his forehead as Kikuri finally steps off the plank and back onto proper ground.

“You did very well!”

Kikuri visibly relaxes, the stiffness melting from her little body before her head jerks into the direction of Tropius. The large Pokémon had shifted and made a noise. Hanzo doesn’t believe for a second that it happened by accident.

Mister Wilhelm seems like such a nice man at first glance, but he has turned out again and again as being quite… devious indeed. He is not the jolly old man that Hanzo had first thought he was.

Immediately, Kikuri starts storming the Tropius, the red markings on her tail once again glowing.

“Stop! The crown isn’t there! You need to turn right- Kikuri, right!”

But she seems hellbent on picking a fight with the first Pokémon she can fight, small flames flickering from her beak.

While Tropius is a grass type, it does not look overly concerned with the advancing fire type Pokémon. It unfolds its leaf wings from its back and gives them a sharp little flap. The ensuing gust of wind hits Kikuri unprepared and she rolls backwards once. It wasn’t an aggressive maneuver but it has her standing there for a second, stunned at the audacity.

“There, that’s what you get for being so aggressive. Now turn right and-” he stops talking and puts his hand against his face with a low groan when his Pokémon jumps forward, now apparently hellbent on fighting the Tropius.

The other three Pokémon just watch with mild interest. They look just as unconcerned with the whole thing as Tropius itself.

Hanzo takes an aborted step forward. He has half a mind of crossing the water himself so he can grab Kikuri and shake her to get her out of this infernal mood. The only thing stopping him from doing so is the knowledge that they’ll be disqualified.

“25 minutes left!” Mister Wilhelm’s cheery voice rings out over the trial ground. It is more than enough time for Kikuri to climb the Exeggutor and retrieve the crown… if she would just listen to him and stop getting distracted by her unreasonable thirst for blood.

The Drapion has moved a little, scaled body scraping the ground and pulling Salandit’s attention. She looks agitated from being unable to see her surroundings and what she surmises is the ‘enemy’, though Hanzo has a feeling she completely forgot about the hood that has been placed over her head.

The big Pokémon begin to shift little by little, drawing her attention and getting her into a frenzy without doing more than wiggling their leafs or scraping their claws. It doesn’t take more to completely distract Kikuri from the actual target – the tiny flower crown that Hanzo can only hope is still somewhere on top of the Exeggutor’s head.

Their teasing is so deliberate, he can see that each single one must be one of Mister Wilhelm’s Pokémon. At least it isn’t once again one of Cole’s team that is throwing a wrench into the proceedings.

They’re old but keenly intelligent, that much Hanzo can see, playing hot-headed Kikuri like a fiddle. At one point they manage to rile her up so much that she is just running in a circle and haphazardly throws small ember balls into the air in a futile effort to hit someone and get her mounting frustrations out that way.

“Kikuri! Kikuri, listen!”

Hanzo finds himself pacing along the water’s edge, trying to keep abreast with his Pokémon running to and fro like a headless chicken, chasing the sounds from the old Pokémon that move so secretly that Hanzo barely even sees them shift himself.

What should he do? How was he supposed to gain her attention?

Time is slipping through his fingers and Kikuri is starting to get distressed. That has him pause, watching how her throat is fluttering as she swallows quickly, her body language tight and stiff, though in a different way than before when she had been unsure of her surroundings.

It’s difficult to see one of his Pokémon in distress, even if it was Kikuri who absolutely is responsible of it herself. He doesn’t want to punish her; not like this, in any case. She’s a difficult Pokémon to take care of, but that also is directly a result out of his own failure as a trainer. He should have been more clear in his interactions with her from the start. Make her feel more secure and like he has things under control.

He shouldn’t have let it get so far that she thought she always had to come up with solutions to problems herself.

Making up his mind, Hanzo crosses the pool in a few quick strides, his feet finding the plank without much of his conscious effort.

“Kikuri, I’m here,” he says breathlessly, barely managing to dodge one of the embers she haphazardly has been throwing into the air. He goes down on one knee and reaches out for her, touching her back and startling her out of the spiral she had gotten herself into. She ducks out from under his touch and swipes at him, sharp claws catching the back of his hand.

“Easy. Easy, it’s just me, okay? Easy. Calm down.” He puts his hand on her back again. It’s slender; he’s never really noticed just how tiny she is. He can feel her spine against his palm and the tension throughout her body that makes her almost vibrate on the spot.

At least she does not duck away from him again. She just stands there, breathing heavily, dark smoke slipping out from her beak.

“Only listen to my voice. Everything is fine – the other Pokémon have barely moved. Nobody is trying to attack. I got you.”

When after a moment she still does not pull away, he starts to carefully pet her. It’s rare that he really gets to do so. Kikuri doesn’t really lend herself to petting and he has never had the feeling that she secretly wanted it… but for now she seems to accept it as her stance finally softens and she turns her head a little, clearly listening to him.

“Nothing is out to get you right now. I’ll tell you when that changes. Alright?” He slowly takes his hand off of her. “You did well, but we really need to get a move on. You don’t want us to lose this, do you? … Even Goomy won the trial for me.”

It’s a mean thing to say, but it does get the desired reaction. He can see her becoming offended which is a lot better than having her distressed.

“Good. Good, then… I will stay here. You start moving, I’ll direct you to the Exeggutor. You need to climb it all the way. Last time I saw the crown, it was on top of its head.”

Kikuri starts moving, actually listening to Hanzo’s guidance for once. As she moves past the Drampa, it startles the both of them by snorting suddenly. Her tail goes up and the red marking on it begins to glow but after a second she continues moving instead of squaring up with the other Pokémon again.

Maybe the fact that they only have fifteen more minutes, as announced loudly by Mister Wilhelm, has managed to drive things home to her. She does not want to be the odd one out that didn’t manage to win the trial. In a lot of ways, they’re very similar. After all, most of his journey now has been accomplished out of sheer spite toward his more naturally talented younger brother.

“You are at Exeggutor’s feet now. You need to climb its neck and up into its leafs-”

He barely has it out before she basically launches herself off the ground and lands on the Exeggutor’s belly with spread eagled feet. Her nails easily hold on to the bark that encases its body. Hanzo opens his mouth but she starts to skitter upward without much hesitation, so he closes it again and just watches.

If he were to bet, he’d say that she tries to dig her nails in especially hard, though the Exeggutor does not look like it cares very much one way or the other. It just keeps slowly swinging its neck like a pendulum, the expression on its faces serene as far as he can see from down below.

Kikuri vanishes inside the leafs on top of its head, so Hanzo is stuck hoping that the little flower crown still is there and has not miraculously changed locations since.

He keeps craning his neck, trying to see what is happening up there without a chance. Just when Mister Wilhelm announces loudly the last 5 minutes, Kikuri jumps, limbs outstretched as if she had any membranes to help her fly.

Hanzo’s eyes widen in shock and he immediately unfolds his arms, trying to anticipate where she might fall.

In the end, Kikuri lands squarely on his chest, and when he looks, she is holding the flower crown in her beak, and when he quickly removes the hood from her head, her crescent moon eyes narrowed in amusement or pride. He’s not quite sure.

It’s a comparatively unspectacular ending to three very exhausting and difficult trials, but… standing there with her in his arms, knowing that they succeeded – it fills him with no small amount of joy and a feeling of accomplishment.

.oOo.

Balderich is smiling at him when he stops in front of a door and turns around. Hanzo is not too sure what to think about that expression, though it certainly is friendly enough. It does make him wonder whether the old Butler knows something that he doesn’t.

“It was very interesting with you and your friends around, Mister Shimada. It will be sad to see the three of you leave, but I am certain that we will meet again sooner or later.”

Hanzo relaxes and finds himself smiling slightly.

“It was an experience I won’t soon forget. I did learn a lot.”

Balderich nods with a satisfied expression and briefly knocks on the door before opening it for Hanzo to step inside.

Hanzo walks into an office that looks both too stiff for Mister Wilhelm but also very appropriate for him if seen in the context of the rest of his massive villa.

The man himself is sitting behind his desk, currently talking on the phone, though he is beaming at Hanzo and waving him closer excitedly.

“I tell you! Young Hanzo has been very interesting and a lot of fun! I am excited to see when little Genji will come around! There is no doubt in my mind that he too will be very entertaining!”

“Hmm… I am… glad to hear your enthusiastic praises.”

Hanzo’s eyes flick toward the screen on Mister Wilhelm’s grand table. He can’t see the picture but his father’s calm voice is unmistakable.

Mister Wilhelm gets his attention by waving around one of his large hands, then pointing toward a door Hanzo had not noticed before.

When he hesitates, he shoos him toward it, so he moves, leaving the two gym leaders to talk, though he would have liked to stay and listen, especially when the conversation was about him.

Mister Wilhelm had asked for him; he had thought he would be issued his badge and that would be it, but opening the door and stepping into what turns out to be a bedroom makes him realize that the evening has only just begun.

The air is thick with the scent of sex and on the foot of the bed sits none other than Cole, naked and with his arms bound to the massive top of the bedframe as he idly rocks on what Hanzo can only assume is a toy.

The Hell…?

Next time: Hanzo's time on the island ends with not one but two bangs! He would not have thought that his exhaustive and sexual adventure would end with... Genji?!