You couldn't believe what was happening. How in the world had everything gone from 'life is good' to 'once again being trapped by Ho-oh?' And how had he found you? Well it's possible he had heard that it had been in that forest where you and Lugia had met, where you had been shrunk a year ago. But of all days he had to go to that forest just when you were feeling nostalgic and wanted to walk around there.
What were the odds?
It was more likely that Ho-oh had kept watching over the forest somehow, waiting for you. That wasn't more comforting at all, in fact it was more unnerving.
When you hit Ho-oh's tongue you almost faint. Usually when you reentered Lugia or Floatzel's body through the mouth your contact with saliva was minimal, but this time you had fell face-first onto the tongue, practically getting soaked. The tongue moved backwards, bringing you towards the throat. You barely had time to react before you were unceremoniously thrown back into a place you were sure you would never visit again.
The journey down Ho-oh's long neck was quick, depositing you in an organ that wasn't familiar to you, filled with rocks and other similar indigestible material. However before you had any time to even stand up you were pushed down another path, which led to one place that you did remember, and not because you had loved it, the gizzard. The avian stomach was just like you remembered, spacious and definitely not very welcoming. To make everything even worse, unlike the last time you were there, where the content of the gizzard was limited to puddles of acids and nothing else, it now was half-full of soggy herbs and plants. "Oh great, just great. Did you do this on purpose?"
"Do what?" Ho-oh replied curtly. You could notice the annoyance in his voice and you were not surprised to notice you didn't care the least about that.
"Why did you have to trap me shortly after you had lunch?"
"You were the one who went to the forest at this time. It's not my fault!"
"You had said you would be a better host!" Not that he could be worse...or that I plan to stay for long.
"It was an accident, okay? I do intend to be a better host in some ways, but I also haven't forgotten all the suffering you and Lugia made me go through. I have the right to be petty at times"
You facepalmed, groaning, and stood up. You climbed the plants around you, being careful to not to fall in any liquids that were gathering on the floor of the gizzard. It was just as disgusting as you expected, and in that moment you felt very grateful to Lugia and Floatzel for keeping their stomachs empty when you were inside them. "I haven't agreed I'll help you. You weren't exactly a gracious host and I haven't forgotten that"
There was silence for a moment while you finally got to the highest point. Finally Ho-oh talked, apparently having calmed down a bit. It seemed he was doing an huge effort trying to be civil. "We're not going to get anywhere if we keep focusing on what we did to each other. You did wrong to me and I suppose it could be possible I may have given you just a little bit of bad treatment before. But I'm desperate. Do you think if I weren't desperate you'd be alive in this moment?"
He had a point there. You imagined that if you ever met again he'd incinerate you at the first chance, not lock you again in his body...with supposedly better conditions. Ho-oh continued speaking. "I really need my Legendary status back. I have lived with it too long to simply go back to being a common Pokémon. You caused this and so you're the only one who can solve this. Lugia won't even talk to me for obvious reasons.
I'm actually ordering...begging you here: help me"
You gritted your teeth. While you were kind of grateful he had some mercy on letting you live...your actual situation definitely wasn't going to be what you would have chosen if he had asked, although you doubted you'd ever have listened what he had to say. Besides you were once again locked inside him. Escaping? He surely learned from last time. No more trips to his brain. That was very likely to not to be an option anymore.
There were several entrances and exits to the body, but surely Ho-oh already took measures to block them, although knowing him there was a chance the only one he left was the most humiliating and least desirable one, which would be his cloaca, just to see you escape and trap you instantly. You weren't going to give him the satisfaction of such a moment.
All in all, accepting your situation seemed...the only thing to do. You hated yourself a little for what you were going to say. "Okay, I'll stay here, but there are some conditions I need to lay. Without them I won't do anything to help you"
Ho-oh grumbled under his breath before replying. "Okay, okay. What conditions are those?"
"First: no pressuring me. I have no idea yet how to do such thing, so I need time to think. I don't know how long it'll take, either, so just leave this to me" That should give me some time to think of a way to stop all this.
"Fine"
"I also want to be treated with dignity. No pushing me to places I don't want to go. No impromptu journeys to your bowels, no going around cleaning, no giving you forced pleasure, nothing like that. If I ever go to any place it'll be on my own will" Not that I plan to go hang around his intestines or his privates again. I already had enough of that.
"That was obvious, human. I said I'd be a better host"
"Third. Uh..." you couldn't really think of a third. You considered making him give you a way to keep in contact with Lugia or Floatzel, but he wasn't an idiot. There was no way he was going to accept that. Besides, he didn't know you were supposed to meet Lugia in two weeks. If you resisted two weeks inside him then maybe things would get solved by then.
"Can't think of a third, ah?"
"Third, I want to be free to walk around your body" you decided.
"I won't allow you to access my brain if that's what you're insinuating" Ho-oh's tone had gotten harsher.
"That wasn't what I meant. Keep that out of limits, I suppose, but I want to be able to go anywhere else"
"Fine. You can go anywhere in my body except my brain. Anything else?"
"I think that's all for now. Where will I sleep?" you looked around the gizzard. That better not be your new bedroom.
"As a sign of good will I'll allow you to choose the location if your bedroom anywhere in my body. You should remember a few places in it, but in case you don't know here are some indications from my gizzard.
You'll find four openings. One goes into my intestines, one goes into my back and towards my back and tail feathers and all organs through that path, one goes towards my chest and all organs in that location and the last one goes towards my foundry. This last one is not a good option, you wouldn't be able to endure the heat for hours"
"Okay, but which one leads where?"
"That's for you to find out" Ho-oh cawed and refused to say anything else.
Sighing, you looked around the gizzard, locating the four options. You pinpointed where the sphincter you had come through was and deduced the opening directly opposite to that one led to the bowels, so that option was crossed out.
The way towards the chest was high in the walls, you'd need to go and climb more of Ho-oh's lunch to reach it. The one that went to his back and to the end of his tail was the one closest to you. The one for the foundry must have been the last one, so you ignored it.
After a moment of trying to remember the location of the organs you had seen last time (you noticed that you couldn't even guess where in Ho-oh's body most of them were located), you made your decision.
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