Chapter 2: Celebration

Shulk was having quite a strange dream. He was sitting in Dunban's kitchen when two Fioras walked in and started arguing with each other. Shulk had no idea what they were saying, because Reyn was laughing real hard and kept bashing the table, trying to squish the miniature Rikis running around on it. Eventually the Fioras stopped arguing and both turned to Shulk with an expectant look on their faces. Uh-oh.

"Morning-time! Shulk the birthdaypon must get up and be ready!"

Riki was alternating between knocking on the bedroom door with his fists and with his belly. Sure, there were probably more effective ways to accomplish his goal, but he always preferred the fun path.

"Wakey-wakey! Sun shine! Breeze blow! Hom Hom grow lipfuzz and facebeard!"

Shulk opened one eye, slowly realising that he was not in fact about to get told off by two Fioras, but by a determined Nopon. For...some reason. He was too busy realising his neck hurt to think about what Riki was going on about. Still thinking he was in bed, he tried to get up and ended up rocking his chair backwards, slamming himself back-first onto the floor.

"Birthdaypon awake! Come, breakfast is outside! No keep anyone waiting!" Satisfied with the loud noise, Riki rolled downstairs and dashed outside, eager to start eating himself.

Shulk groaned and rolled out of the chair. Now his head hurt too. Bumbling to his feet, he groggily realised that he must have dozed off while proofreading Tyrea's book last night. It was kind of strange really - he'd never been much for books with words before, only books with numbers. There was just something about the history of the High Entia that intrigued him.

Rubbing his sore neck, he opted for a change of clothes; several people would get on his case for wearing the same thing two days in a row. Today feels like a red day, he thought, and dressed accordingly.

Wait. Don't I have a birthday coming up soon?

Hold on, why is there a pancake buffet outside?

The realisation hit Shulk like a bag of bricks. Not only was today his birthday, but there were people outside waiting on him to show up.

...uh-oh.

He immediately tripped on the chair that he neglected to set upright, sending him tumbling to the floor once again. Not exactly a good omen for the day ahead. Trying to ignore his general soreness and put himself together, he hastily dashed for the exit.

Oh wait, I can't leave without...

Shulk turned back for the Monado. He knew that, if Riki was taking an active role in the day's festivities, there would be no way that he'd be allowed out of his own house without carrying the weapon that had become associated with himself.

He picked up the modified replica of his old sword, absent-mindedly making sure that it looked good as new. Activating it just to be sure, he gave it a few swings, with the most curious of all symbols staring back at him from the glass inset: in fact, it looked more like a collection of four separate symbols than a single one.

スマ
ブラ

Shulk slapped the Monado on his back and was once again prepared to leave - that is, until the subconscious part of his mind said "hey doofus, didn't you notice this" and directed him back to the desk, where a small green parcel was sitting. It looked a lot like a birthday present, if a bit low-key. He picked it up - it had a decent weight to it, but was still quite light. This could make a good paperweight, he idly wondered, before the rational part of his brain finally woke up and kicked into gear.

How'd this get in here?

Who's this from?

Why would anyone give me a present anonymously?

Shulk started at the little box. There must be some reason why someone would go through the effort of sneaking in during the night for a small package instead of just handing it to him during the day. Was he supposed to open it in secret before the day began? Or was he supposed to wait until the day was over? Could this be some sort of trap that he wouldn't want to open alone?

"C'mon Shulk, we're waitin' on ya!" Reyn's yelling always cut through the window more easily than Shulk would have liked. He was fascinated by the mystery gift and couldn't wait to open it, but knowing himself and what had just happened last night, he would get stuck in a nerd trance with whatever it was and probably get bodied out of his own house. He tucked the box into his jacket and ventured outside.

The day had gone off mostly without a hitch - pancakes for breakfast, colony-wide sports in the morning, a buffet for lunch, more physical activities in the afternoon, a Nopon play depicting Shulk's adventure, and a feast featuring massive amounts of cake for dinner. And now was the main event: the presents, to be given out in the park's plaza.

Shulk's face had begun to hurt from smiling so much. It seemed like half of Colony 9 had something to give him, and gifts from the other settlements weren't exactly scarce either. Most of the gifts were standard birthday fare - socks, candy, and gift cards being the most common. The most memorable presents so far were a pair of ether-sensitive binoculars, a multivariate calculus textbook, a Machina welding mask, and a home-made Monado polishing kit. Heck, even Alvis had pitched in, though Shulk had no clue what a "telegraph" was and made a mental note to investigate it the next day. The table Shulk was sitting at was piled high with loot.

The gifts from his companions weren't exactly weak fare either. Sharla had given an antique watch that had been refurbished into a casing made of Mechon armour. Dunban had given a copy of Advanced Ether Physics Research, which Shulk had trouble lifting with both arms. Melia had given a High Entia engineering manual focused on the principles of flight. Riki had given a hand-crafted diorama of the Bionis and Mechonis with the "science station" Alvis had spoken of hanging overhead, which impressed Shulk simply to see proof that Riki could stand still. Reyn had given a hat made of a rare strain of Caterpile silk that reflects in different colours based on the angle of the sun.

Shulk could tell that Fiora was intentionally holding herself back at the end of the line, refusing offers to skip ahead. Upon finally reaching her it was obvious why - her present was three feet long and full of bubble wrap.

"Birthdaypon not spend all night popping all bubbles!" It was amazing, if a bit annoying, how Riki managed to get through pretty much the entire day without losing his voice. Shulk smirked and tossed the bubble wrap towards him, causing him to erupt into a series of "pow!"s as he started stomping it out.

Melia was watching from a front-row seat on the right side of the plaza, only because Riki had convinced her to not hang around in the back. She had found the whole affair mildly depressing, having not had a proper birthday celebration of her own since she was 75, and was not scheduled to have another until the age of 100. Still, watching the Heropon's childish antics made it impossible for anyone to keep a bad mood going.

Beyond the next layer of tissue paper, the gift was revealed and extracted - a framed painting of the seven companions staring across the ocean into the sunset, under the caption "To each their own path." Shulk was astonished. He knew Fiora started dabbling in painting upon regaining her Homs body, but had no idea she had reached this level of skill.

"...well? How do you like it?" The audience grew quiet.

Shulk was acutely aware that the situation called for a hug, but was even more aware that he was the worst in the colony at delivering one. He was also still holding the painting in both hands, which was kind of an obstacle to the hugging process, but couldn't put it down without looking like he disliked it. He attempted to split the difference by taking one arm off the painting, wrapping it around Fiora's midsection, and applying a squeezing motion. He didn't particularly care how awkward it looked, knowing Fiora would fix it up shortly by giving a proper hug back.

As Fiora repaired the hug and the audience made typical "awww" sounds, Shulk felt the mystery gift in his jacket. He had pretty much forgotten about it for most of the day. With all the other presents unwrapped, now was probably the best time to bring it out.

The hug broke off and Dunban made to stand up and declare what was to happen next. Shulk held up a "wait just a moment" finger towards him while standing up himself. He had no plan for what to say to the audience, so he just opened his mouth and let it ramble.

"Um, okay, so." This was a great start. "Well, there's actually one more present left here." He held up the small box.

The audience let out a collective gasp of intrigue, covering up Melia's personal gasp of horror. She would have bet everything she owned that Shulk's natural curiosity would compel him to open the gift in private the instant he saw it, yet here it is, about to be opened in view of over a hundred people. It was the worst-case scenario.

"I found this in my room today. I have no idea who it's from, or what it could be." He softly shook it sideways a little bit, determining that whatever was inside was bottom-heavy. "So let's open it up."

He started removing the paper, being noticeably more careful than with most of his presents, to reveal an equally-nondescript wooden box. A low mutter fell over the audience.

Melia was completely frozen, her face trying to decide whether to turn white with fear or red with embarrassment. It didn't matter that literally no one else alive in this world would have any idea what this was, or that the odds of actually discovering the anonymous gifter to be herself were incredibly small. The most important thing was that the knowledge of its existence would remain private, and that was about to go out the window.

Shulk opened the top of the box, revealing an otherworldly glow from within. The audience fell silent as he reached in, lifted out the object, and placed it on the table.

Perched on a pyramid-shaped stand of ebony was what appeared to be a glass ball, about five centimetres in diameter, full of a constantly shifting mass of coloured light. The base had carvings along three of the four beveled bottom edges in a language that Shulk did not know, though he had the distant feeling he'd seen similar before. It was a glorious sight.

The crowd reacted accordingly, releasing a mixture of "ooh"s and "ahh"s. Shulk stared at the sphere intently, feeling an unusual calm drift over his mind as he did so. He didn't have the first clue what it was other than "beautiful", but it was more than likely both rare and expensive, if not outright the only one of its kind.

After a minute or two, Dunban stood up as previously attempted, jolting Shulk out of his half-trance. "An impressive way to end an impressive haul." Applause. "Now then, with that all sorted, let's get things cleared up a bit and open the floor."

Shulk carefully replaced the mystery orb into the box and closed it up. "I'll need a bit of help getting all this stuff back to my place."

"'Course ya will. Let's get a move on! Can't wait for the party to really start." Reyn rolled his arm and grabbed a large basket. "C'mon Melia, don't just sit there like a lump, we might dance into ya!" He let out a laugh and started to help pile gifts into the basket.

"...um, yes, of course..." Melia moved a muscle for the first time in several minutes and began slowly inching towards the park's sidelines. Watching her plan crumble before her eyes was a surreal feeling that she didn't think had completely sunk in yet. And it could still get worse - it was inevitable that "the beautiful surprise mystery gift" would be the talk of the town for some time, with her already able to hear gossip forming from the crowd over who could have sent it. Her current objective was to stay out of any such conversations, and subsequently leave the party as soon as possible without coming under suspicion for leaving early.

And then...then I'll cry, I suppose. As soon as the unexpected thought crossed her mind, her eyes decided to go all-in and went straight to work.

"Melly is leaking sadness again." Sometimes it felt like Riki was sitting on her shoulders at all times. It was quite unnerving.

Out came the fake smile. "I'm fine, Riki. I just..." The lie machine groaned at being pressed into service yet again. "It's nice to see Shulk be given so much gratitude."

Normally Riki would be able to see through such a flimsy fib, but perhaps due to his unkillable good mood, he took the bait. "Mm yes. Shulk never accept gratitude of words from friends and others. Always team effort, he says, never himself. But birthdaypon no can reject gratitude of things!"

Melia nodded. With the conversation successfully killing her tears, she wanted to be alone again. "Why don't you find Oka? I'm sure everyone would love to see one of your Nopon dances."

"Reyn challenge Riki to dancefight, one-on-one! Already preparing moves to show! Reyn is easy money!"

With all the colony children losing interest and being ushered to bed by their parents at about nine o'clock, Dunban took up a position behind the bar and started the flow of alcoholic drinks. The dance floor had begun to thin out as most people started sitting down and gossiping, making it possible to watch individual pairs of people.

Reyn and Riki did indeed put on a dance-off for the ages; Riki was initially assumed to be the winner by default after his first-round performance, but Reyn managed to pull off some quite spectacular moves that impressed even his opponent. After several rounds with both participants taking drinks between them, it was eventually called a tie after they both crashed into the same tree. Not long afterwards, Fiora took to the center of the floor with Shulk dragged alongside. At an utter loss of what to do, he just kind of shimmied around a little bit as Fiora danced circles around him.

Melia was hanging around the park exit, holding half a glass of non-alcoholic Entian Ale to deter nosy people from trying to buy her drinks. She could tell by Shulk's regressive attitude that he wanted out of the social madness just as much as she did, and figured that once he left the party, anyone else was free to do so. Her instinct was proven correct once the song ended and a dizzy Shulk raised his voice.

"Okay, it was a great day everyone, and I'm sure you all enjoyed yourselves as much as I did, but I need to go to bed." The crowd respectfully clapped as he stumbled back towards the Residential District, a sore left foot added to his list of injuries, as Fiora was not an immaculate dancer.

Melia finished her lukewarm drink and placed the empty glass on the bar while Dunban wasn't looking. She then turned towards the colony exit - she would rather walk an hour in an attempt to clear her head than simply transport home and go to bed miserable.

"Melia!" Fiora had appeared in her path like magic, wearing a big smile. "How's it going? You enjoying the party?"

The immediate instinct that popped into Melia's head was to take her drink and dump it in Fiora's face. Luckily, not only had she just gotten rid of her drink, but she had several decades of practice at suppressing such instincts.

"I enjoyed it more before it became...rowdy." It was pretty much the truth. Melia much preferred uptight "events" with an enforced dress code and a focus on respectable conversation over a crowded plaza full of increasingly drunk people trying to dance and pick up dates.

"So you're leaving then?" Fiora's smile was much smaller, but it never seemed to go away.

Melia nodded. "I see no purpose for me to remain any longer."

"Well, see you later then." Fiora turned around and took off after Shulk's distant form.

Melia was relieved at how easy it was to get rid of her assailant, having expected a long drawn-out plea to hang around. Not wasting any more time, she left the colony and started walking home.