Underwater

Pumped up by my fans, I took the highway to get to the big stadium. Even though it was still a jog of about ten minutes, I could already see it. And the mass of people around the entrance. Now I was really fired up and increased the pace of my steps.

Using the highway was a rather common method nowaday, since Zanarkand could not afford maintain vehicles to drive on them. So, you could walk on them by foot rather comfortably. And it was well worth it, too. The sights of Zanarkand from up on a skyway is pretty amazing. Buildings lit up in the night, yeah, I suppose it was rather neat. Of course, back then I simply took that for granted.

My good mood however vanished instantly when I passed a building with a huge monitor on its side. The frame showed my old man: Jecht. Confident grin on his face as usual. It was just the sort of face I simply don't like. I scoffed at it and tried to forget about it, but the speakers on the side of the building wouldn't let me.

The commentator blabbed about how he had admired Jecht and how this tournament was held in his honors. Frankly, I didn't care about it at all, but I still would play tonight. Ironic, don't you think? A daughter, participating in a tournament that is held to honor her missing father, a star blitzball player, ten years after he had vanished, even though she despises him.

In any case, I made my way through the stadium in time. After getting through another horde of fans at the entrance, I went up to the big bowl, where players wait for the start of the game. I knew all eyes would be on me that night, me being the daughter and everything... but yeah, I kinda enjoyed that, too.

The game was going alright. The Duggles scored a goal early in the game, but we, the Abes, we didn't give up that easily. So, I got this perfect pass, that went right upwards towards the sky. I swam after it and burst out of the water and flipped over to shoot it with full strength at the goal.

But then, when I was there, hanging in the air with the Blitzball right in front of me, I was distracted. Behind the ball, there was something odd. Back there, there was a huge... sphere of water, rising up in front of Zanarkand. And then, it shot fireballs at the city.

And I panicked. I tried to grab onto the ledge over the bowl, but soon, I slipped and fell down. I have no clue how I survived that fall, but I guess I must've fallen into a bit of water that was still hanging in the air and was washed down with it. In any case, I ended up in front of the stadium.

Around me, people were screaming, huge debris was next to me... it was crazy, surreal even. I stood up and grabbed my head, it was throbbing in pain. But I was still alive. Still a bit dizzy in the head, I walked a few steps before I spotted someone in a red coat casually leaning against a huge boulder that was once part of the stadium.

"Auron?! What are you doing here?", I called out to him.

Auron was a man that appeared pretty much nine years ago. Without even asking me for permission, he began to look after me. He would berate me when I made mistakes, but other than that, he was just weird. He'd show up often in one week and be completely gone in the next. Seriously, I had no idea what to think of him, he was just... well, you know what he's like.

"I was waiting for you.", he stated, pushed himself into a fully standing position and left without hurry.

"What are you talking about?", I could only ask as he left the devastated scenery behind him calmly. Then, I hurried after him.