[Blue misses the tiny bit of humor and self-reflection Akechi gets from that; after all, rivalries like that were so common back home, he figures it's just Akechi genuinely commenting in understanding for the situation.]

[Doesn't everyone have a complicated, vaguely homoerotic life's rival!?]

He probably can... If he can manage it. Whatever brought us here must be way more powerful than the Legendary birds, [Blue muses. Red had caught legendaries, but even they had different ranks within their pantheons; the legends of the birds paled in comparison to those of the Legendaries who had been born from the time of the creation of the universe.]

But, he's always gotten along with Pokémon like nobody else- he even tamed the birds, so if anyone can manage to convince them, I'm sure he can!

[Blue says it with a bit of admiring cheer. Rely on the nearly mute, socially anxious kid to negotiate with god? No problem!]

[The Smoogles, who have gotten bored with their philosophical talk, have taken to painting the ground around them- Blue's interest is caught by it, and he leans over to observe the patterns being doodled around their feet, almost like a strange combination of hopscotch and a scene from a football playbook on a whiteboard.]

Oh, is this a game? Maybe they want us to play...