Previously on Oranges to Grapes...
The stage show in Kitakami continues into Act 2, showing how Pecharunt and his retainers came together...
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The kuroko cleared out the set again, but they didn't set up the next scene. Instead, they set out a large spool of paper on one side of the stage and a pole with a crank on the other. A portion of the spool was unrolled and set on the pole while a lantern with a paper box was set up behind it. "With the group at full squad," the caretaker narrated, "Pecharunt, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti set off for the long journey towards the land of Kitakami."
The lantern was lit, shining a circle of light on the back of the paper, and wooden cutouts of the aforementioned characters cast shadows in their shapes. As a small band played music on traditional Japanese instruments, the crank on the pole was turned, and the spool unfurled, providing the backdrop to an animated puppet show. These special effects made it look like the characters were crossing fields, climbing mountains, and fording seas for several minutes, until finally, when the music started to wind down, the spool came to an ink painting of Oni Mountain, signaling their arrival in Kitakami.
The band cleared out, and as the next scene was set up, the caretaker narrated, "Upon the group's arrival, the latest Festival of Masks was already underway, and Ogerpon and her partner were already making their star appearance for the citizens of Mossui. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Pecharunt and his retainers were hiding in the shadows, quietly contemplating their next move..."
The set had been changed to a row of festival stands, and the man in brown was wearing a Hearthflame Mask prop, while the girl wore her usual green poncho and a Teal Mask prop, and both of them waved to the stand workers. Meanwhile, a cutout plywood tree stood to the side of the set, but it was ignored by the audience for now.
"Hello, citizens of Mossui," the man cheered, "and thank you all once again for welcoming my partner, Ogerpon, and I into your community, with yet another Festival of Masks!"
"Pon pon!" the girl cheered.
"Glad to hear that my gifts to you are still finding some use to this day," the mask-maker said after revealing himself from the crowd on stage. "But you might want to be careful with those. Innocent curiosity might not be the only thing those beautiful masks of yours may attract."
"Well, you won't neet to worry about that," the man in brown assured the mask-maker. "Ogerpon and I are really good at knowing who's just wanting to meet us, and who'd dare to take from us."
"Pon, pon," the girl confirmed with a sure nod.
"Alright," the mask-maker supposed. "But I'm only saying this out of concern. Everyone here in Kitakami- myself included, of course- has grown to enjoy your presence amongst us, and I'd hate for anything to jeopardize that."
"And don't think us unappreciative of that," the man in brown said, "because we've grown to appreciate this land as well, and are glad to call it our home... because of you."
The caretaker took over the story again, cueing the kuroko to change the scenery again. "Those words of sincere kindness touched the mask-maker's heart, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that the pair had some misfortune coming... little did he know, he was right. After the festival wound down, Ogerpon and her partner had gone home to their den, and left all four of the glittering masks momentarily, hoping to come back shortly. But that lapse in judgement gave Pecharunt and his retainers a chance to make their move..."
After the scene was changed to the outside of the Ogre's Den, the three suit actors came back from stage right without the puppeteer kuroko this time. "Whew," the Munkidori suit actor said. "It took a few glimpses through the whole ten seconds, but I found where the masks are: right in that den."
"Can you believe no one suspected a thing back at the festival?" the Okidogi suit actor piped up. "We must be really good at being sneaky!"
"Then let's keep that streak going," the Fezandipiti suit actor said. "Okidogi, you and I will go into the den to grab the masks while Munkidori keeps a lookout. Now, let's get those masks!"
"Right!" the other two said, and the Okidogi and Fezandipiti suit actors went into a small alcove in the backdrop while the Munkidori suit actor stayed behind. But it wasn't long before the man in brown entered from stage left and was noticed!
"MMMKAY! MMMKAY!" the Munkidori suit actor called out to warn the others!
"What the- What's going on here!?" the man in brown shouted before he charged into the alcove himself. Suddenly, there were sounds of a fight breaking out, and bits of red cotton and red ink were flung out of the entrance before everything went quiet. Two seconds later, the Okidogi suit actor came out of the alcove carrying the Hearthflame and Cornerstone Mask props while the Fezandipiti suit actor followed with the Wellspring Mask prop.
"Let's get out of here!" the Okidogi suit actor shouted as he ran to exit stage right.
"What about the other mask!?" the Munkidori suit actor questioned before he was dragged away.
"No time, just go!" the Fezandipiti suit actor spat as the set was cleared out.
Not long after, the girl in the poncho entered stage left and was shocked by what she saw. "Pon!?" she cried before she stepped into the alcove, then... "POOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!!!"
Another chilling silence, then the girl came out of the alcove with a more serious expression on her face before saying something other than what she'd been the entire show. "I wanted nothing more than to find a place in the world where my partner and I can finally belong... and now that we've found it, our purpose has been usurped from our grasp by common undesireables, along with someone I shared a life with. Well, I'm not going to take this attack lying down." She then put on the Teal Mask prop and brandished a plastic cudgel prop before finishing her soliloquy with, "I know what I must do."
As she ran off and exited stage right, the kuroko came and took the scenery away in the opposite direction, simulating a setting transfer. Later, the mask-maker in green re-entered from stage right just as the suit actors re-entered from stage left, having made a complete circle around the hall monument. "Whoa! Who were those strange Pokemon who just passed by... and were they carrying three of the masks with them?" the mask-maker wondered aloud as the suit actors re-exited stage right. Just then, the girl in the poncho quickly rushed past the mask-maker as well, having also made the backstage circle. "Was that Ogerpon? But that means..." the mask-maker said before gasping! "Oh, no! I've got to go save her partner before it's too late!" And he exited stage left.
Later, the puppeteer kuroko played a dual role; first as the stage crew by setting a bamboo mat before himself, then as a cast member by taking out the Pecharunt puppet just as the suit actors re-re-entered stage left from another circle. "Pecharunt! Pecharunt!" the Munkidori suit actor said, tired from running all the way back from the Ogre's Den. (actually, from running two laps around the hall monument) "We're back, and we got the masks, as per your orders!"
After the mask props were placed on the bamboo mat, the kuroko said for the puppet, "Wait a minute, aren't there supposed to be four masks?"
"We had to get out of there," the Okidogi suit actor explained. "The human came back and tried to stop us, so we had to fight him off, but he wouldn't let go of one of the masks!"
"We ended up losing our tempers with him," the Fezandipiti suit actor added, "so we had no choice but to grab what we could and leave before anyone saw us with the body."
"I see," the kuroko said for the puppet. "Did it occur to either of you that the Pokemon might see the body and come here to avenge her partner?"
"No, why?" all three suit actors asked.
"Because HERE SHE COMES!" the kuroko shouted for the puppet as the girl in the poncho came back from another lap around the monument. "STOP HER!!!"
Suddenly, the entire set went dark, making the audience gasp. "Phero-malest-" and a flash of red. "Full ten se-" and another flash of red. "Bludgeoning cha-" and yet another flash of red.
When the lights came back on, the girl held her cudgel prop forward at the puppet... standing in front of empty suits covered in red paper ribbons and lying motionless in a pile.
"No! Leave me alone!" the kuroko begged for the puppet. "I DON'T DESERVE THIS!!!"
But his cries for mercy fell on deaf ears, for with a well-aimed WHACK of the girl's cudgel prop, the Pecharunt puppet was sent flying off the puppeteer's hand. The lights came back off, and spotlights shone on sketched posters showing Pecharunt closing up in his shell and rolling far, far away...
The lights switched on again, and the girl finally relaxed before saying, "You have been avenged, old friend."
But just then, a mob of background characters came in from stage left, horrified at what they saw. "What just happened!?" one demanded.
"I'll tell you what happened!" another accused. "Some new Pokemon came to the land of Kitakami, but THAT ONE couldn't handle sharing the spotlight!"
"No! You have it all wrong!" the mask-maker said after entering stage left. "Ogerpon came to avenge her partner after-"
"AH DADADADADADADA WE DON'T WANNA HEAR IT!" one of the mob shouted to cut him off. "You're just trying to defend your 'best customer!' Well, I bet it was your masks that made her lose control and turn her into a murderer!"
"I knew letting those invaders into our fold was a bad idea from the word go!" another of the mob said. "Well, that clinches it! Ogerpon is bad, and anyone who sides with her is the enemy!"
"YEAH!!!"
"Please!" the mask-maker pleaded. "You must believe me! You must!"
"But no one would set aside their foolishness to try," the caretaker narrated. "For siding with a witnessed murderer, the mask-maker was labeled as a heretic, and Ogerpon... was ousted from Mossui Village." The set was cleared out, and the kuroko set up three posters depicting the aftermath. "And what became of the Pokemon, you may ask? Well, Ogerpon was forced to return to her den all alone after it had been deemed forbidden for anyone to enter, only coming out to watch the festival develop with a new game called Ogre Ousting, lamenting what had become of humanity after that one incident. Meanwhile, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti's bodies were carefully buried uphill from the village, having been officially given the name 'the Loyal Three' by the people, and their grave was christened 'Loyalty Plaza.' As for Pecharunt, he was found in his shell somewhere in the Timeless Woods, and was used as a decoration at the local general store. But the main thing to glean from this story, is that these Pokemon fought for everything they wanted, but in the end, they lost everything they had. And from that day forward, to the day all of them were found and captured by a Paldean Champion, the truth had been locked away by the darkness of ignorance, shrouded behind clouds of closed minds... but that truth, is what you have all just seen." Those words were finalized by three plucks of shamisen strings.
A green, black and orange-striped curtain was then raised and closed the stage up, and the audience stood up from their seats and gave the performance a round of applause. "Thank you, thank you all for watching the show to the end," the caretaker said gratefully. "Before you all leave, I just want to remind you all that the special effects were greatly exaggerated, and no actors were harmed during the performance of this show. In fact, to prove such, it's time for... the curtain call!"
The curtain opened up again, and one by one, each of the actors came up to center stage and took a bow: first, the man in brown and the girl in the poncho, then the merchants, the mask-maker, the old couple, the puppeteer kuroko, and all three of the suit actors. Finally, all of the cast lined up, held hands, and bowed together as the audience clapped one last round, ending the show for the night.
"Well, that was much more entertaining than I thought it would be," Balto said as the group left the festival to return to the community center. "The story was engaging, the actors were devoted, and the action scenes in that last act had me on the edge of my seat!"
"I agree," Pico said. "Good thing I came here with a fresh perspective and didn't expect anything."
"Glad you liked it," Samuel added. "I was kind of worried that once the simulated gore started happening, you'd be squicked."
"What, and missed the ending?" both the lizard and husky said in unison.
"Well, I'm happy that you boys enjoyed the show, but it is getting late," Camilla said before yawning, "Haahhh~ hohm, and we still have an itinerary to go through."
"Aw, come on, cuz," the male bunny picked, "live a little."
"I'll do plenty of that in the morning after I've had some sleep," the female bunny finalized, and no more words were said until everyone was back in Mossui to turn in for the night...
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To be continued.
