The moment Hideo caught a single crumb of hint to where Azelf could be, he set it in his mind to return to the RKS system. He was going to go through it as many times as it took, until he got some information for where Azelf was resting.

And to that end, he'd dressed a bit lighter this time around - a striped t-shirt instead of a sweater. Not good for the weather in Hoenn, but it'd be a lot better for a swim.

Though this time, they had a different start point: ruins. He didn't have any idea what ruins these were, even as Uxie (once more disguised as a Ralts) described it to him. What he did know was there were strange noises coming out of his phone.

He would've preferred white noise to this disjointed wailing.

And he did not trust that strange sensation to go further into the ruins; he was familiar enough with psychic influences to notice when something was tempting him to the exact opposite of what he wanted.

"Nope," Hideo said, rejecting the sensation. "Not going deeper in there."

Reject the pull +1 Curio

Alexei Ivanov

Fortunately, Hideo didn't get any resistance from his companion.

Unfortunately, Hideo did get resistance from the ruins.

The pull growing stronger as he walked away only further emboldened his efforts, and he was certainly putting a lot of effort once the floor beneath them began to crumble. "Crap crap crap," Hideo muttered as he ran as fast as he could, Uxie serving as his eyes guiding him through the ruins.

Though said eyes spent a bit more time and he was comfortable with looking at one of the walls, before he was told what it was doing: reading out an engraving. The more there is, the less you see.

As much as he wanted to ponder these findings, he preferred not falling to his death.

Leave the Ruins

Alexei Ivanov

The two had managed to make their escape - and soon, the simulation shifted to the next stage.

The same island they'd been to before - with the same lake. And the same urging by Uxie to go investigate the lake further, though the disguised pixie wasn't pushing him along - yet.

There wasn't any sudden collapse threatening them, so Hideo had a moment to think on the inscription. "'The more there is, the less you see' probably means darkness or something. 'Cause the darker it is, the less you see, right?" He wasn't the expert on sight, but the concept was simple enough that it made sense.

Though that didn't encourage him to go back there.

Instead, he was here to do the same thing he did before: slowly, he made his way to the lake. "Alright, try number 2 to get to Azelf."

Thankfully, it wasn't ice-cold water. And he was more willing to put energy into swimming down there when he knew what lied within the lake.

Dive into the Lake +50 points

Alexei Ivanov

Hideo nodded - he couldn't think of anything else the riddle could be. Then again, he didn't put too much thought into it.

He had a whole other riddle to focus on. "Dunno if we'll get any closer this time…but we gotta keep trying. Think Courage is what Azelf's all about, so we can't be shy about this."

While he didn't doubt that Uxie could get down there - heck, any Water-type probably could - he needed to reach Azelf.

So into the not-freezing water he went, once more guided by his "Ralts". Hideo kicked along, trying to pace himself better, to avoid tiring out and losing his breath too soon.

Down and down and down he went, doing the best he could. And he did make more progress this time, Uxie telling him Azelf was in sight, still in its unmoving recovery state.

But alas, his lungs gave out, and the familiar sensation came in…

Drown

Alexei Ivanov