Fighting 3.17: Thunderclouds
Cuicatl
3 February, 2020
When Alice took you flying, she wrapped you in her arms and jolted up. You can remember her meaty breath bearing down on you while jolts wracked your body with every wingbeat. Her arms held you tight to her chest so that you could feel every breath and heartbeat. It was reassuring in its own way. Being held by something much bigger and stronger than you.
Like you would have wanted from your mother.
Flying on Noci is almost the opposite. She moves silently with perfect efficiency. There are no wasted movements. There are hardly any movements at all. Not even a heart beating or lungs expanding underneath you. She’s small enough that you can only barely fit on her back. She can hold you down with telekinesis but even that’s impersonal, just a force coming from everywhere and nowhere. Her body heat and the occasional psychic pulse are the only reminders that she’s alive and not just a car or a plane ferrying you somewhere.
{Light signatures detected. Initiate ramming?}
Good. Looks like she’s found the inkay. Not like much else is making light these days.
“Get closer. Don’t actually get in the water, please.”
Your breath is torn from your lungs as she divebombs the inkay troupe. For a weightless moment you wonder if she’s going to ram into the water in spite of your directions. Then she levels off abruptly and comes to a complete stop. You take a moment to catch your breath. As you wait psychic waves start sounding off from all around you. The inkay are a curious lot.
“Hi.” You make sure to channel some of your gift into your voice. “You probably know why I’m here.”
You’re hardly the first trainer, VStar or otherwise, to try to catch a bunch of inkay this winter. They’re one of the only ways to get light, after all.
The questions start coming. At first it’s just one bold inkay asking why your hair is a plant. Then more and more until you can’t field them all. You do your best to respond to as many as you can. It isn’t actually grass. Some humans can do things with their minds. No, you don’t make lights. This is Nocitlālin. She’s a metang. She can also do things with her mind. No, she doesn’t make lights either.
“Where are your siblings?”
You… you ignore that one. Thankfully another asks why Noci is so shiny and the other inkay doesn’t repeat the question.
It’s a careful game. You lead them on but never actually promise they’d travel with you. “Come see the human world,” but not “come and see the human world with me.”
Maybe you’d like an inkay. Malamar are a little terrifying, but you’re pretty sure you could handle it. If everything was going well you would happily take one in and guide it around Alola.
Things are not going well. Pixie is on the brink of leaving for a violent thief she’s known for three days. But you still have a foot in the door. Two more chances to let her realize that she has no idea what she’s getting into. Taking in a new pokémon now would signal that she’s already been forgotten and replaced. That would kill any chance you have of keeping her.
You would like an inkay, yes, but you want your cuddly ball of fluff and personality more. Even if she’s a pain sometimes at least she always keeps things interesting. And she’s your first real friend since Anahuac. Your starter. A gift from someone who owed you nothing.
Things aren’t beyond repair.
They can’t be.
Not again.
*
You dictate out a short myth before starting trial prep. You’re pretty sure some psychic has transcribed it at some point but every book has filler. This is yours.
Reuniclus can see the future and past both. When they split in two one is born in the future, the other in the past. Right solosis tend to be solemn guardians of those who could have great destinies. They see tragedy on all sides and a narrow lane of glory in the middle. Left solosis are more cheerful and content. They can live in the memories of their ancestors and find comfort in happy moments long past. All tragedies have already ended. They can choose to look at something else in any case. Left solosis seek out people who carry legacies. Captive reuniclus use their final breath to give their left side to their trainer and send their right out into the world.
Renfield is a left solosis. It’s why carrying memories is so easy for him. And now he’s been taken away from his home and his friends. If you fail, if Pixie leaves and Noci runs off again and you fail trial after trial then…
You’ll never see him again. Any of them. You won’t be able to buy your mother’s team back. Or pay for Coco’s food and insurance. You’ll be alone. Again.
To you ‘alone’ will always be Gate 41 at Montezuma International Airport. Sitting with no friends, no family, and no pokémon. You arrived well before the flight because you had nothing left to do outside the airport. You sat down at the gate and it was quiet. Peaceful. Then more and more families showed up. Decorated soldiers on leave or businessmen celebrating success and taking their families on vacation to Alola. They fought with each other, mostly. Seemingly about everything. Kids begging parents to visit the candy store down the hall, parents bickering quietly about when boarding will start. Occasional yelling in the distance about the need to hurry up before a flight left. Sometimes they didn’t fight. Just talked about school, work, politics (American politics, mostly; no risk of sounding treasonous). Two kids were arguing about dinosaurs and you wanted to correct them because they were both wrong but couldn’t. You weren’t in their life. You weren’t in anyone’s life. You could only sit alone and listen as the world moved on without you.
“You grew up with a psychic-type, then.” You jolt up. Lyra is in the room. When did that happen? You’re not used to being snuck up on in the dark.
“How long have you been here?”
“Walked in mid recording. Tried to be quiet so it wouldn’t show up on tape.” Oh. You must have been more distracted than you’d thought. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yeah, I grew up with a reuniclus.”
She shifts on her bed. “And you were… okay with that? They’re powerful telepaths. They could mess up your mind easily.”
Yeah. He probably could. He wouldn’t, though. Because if he was willing to do that he would’ve made you less sad while he was at it. But that’s more than you want to tell her. Especially with everything else going on. “He was my mother’s,” you say. “And he saw me as his sister. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Lyra asserts. “They could do something and make you forget.”
He wouldn’t. None of the psychics you’ve met would. “They aren’t all like that, you know?” This was fine when it was just you being insulted. But now she’s being mean to your brother.
“I get that you like him—"
She’s spared from digging herself deeper by someone, Kekoa probably, banging on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Lyra calls out. She opens the door and Kekoa walks in. You know it's him because of the heavy footfalls, surprising for someone as skinny as him, and his heavy breathing.
You pull a ball out of your belt and hold it out to him. You do your best to maintain your glare in Lyra’s direction at the same time. You were interrupted, but you stand by what you said. “Got your inkay.” He walks over, almost hesitantly, and takes it from you. His fingers feel rougher than they did when you met him four months ago. Hormones? Trail callouses?
“Sure you aren’t keeping one? Or a carbink? They aren’t that hard to catch.”
He’d already gone ahead and caught one of the carbink. Good for the last battles of the island and he can always sell it to VStar for a lot of money when he’s done. Sailed straight through the bug trial with it. All while you’ve been distracted by an overbearing ninetales and a frostbite curse. You shiver at the memory. The scratches were never deep but they still chill you to the core whenever you think about them.
“Pixie would lose her shit if I got another pokémon right now.” You pause. “If I lose today,” and Pixie is gone for good, “I’ll catch a carbink for the rematch.”
“Can’t believe you’re dragging her back for a battle,” Kekoa mutters.
“Excuse me?”
“She’s found a new home and you’re bringing her back just to get her electrocuted by a vikavolt.”
“I just want to check on her. Make sure she knows what she’s getting into. She’s barely been there half a week—”
“This checkup includes getting electrocuted?”
“She agreed to it.”
“Hypocrite.” You don’t dignify him with a response. “All the moralizing about my charjabug and you just won’t let your own pokémon go.”
Your voice gets colder than the scars on your side. “I’ve let more slip through my hands than you could imagine. Now get out of my room.”
“Hypocrite.”
He walks out and shuts the door.
“That was…” Lyra trails off, unsure of herself. You debate talking to her or telling her to leave or any number of things. In the end you just sink into your bed and sigh.
“Do you agree with him?”
She squirms enough that the old Center bed creaks underneath her. “If she agreed then I guess it’s fine? Even still I’m worried you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.” You raise an eyebrow. And remember she can’t see you. But you don’t really want to say anything, either. She carries on anyway. “You’re the one who can speak to dragons and birds so maybe I just don’t know as much as pokémon, but I’m worried that she’ll leave and you won’t accept it. Then maybe you’ll get hurt again.”
“Thank you, but I can take care of myself.”
You’ve had to since you were born. You can make it just a little bit farther.
*
4 February, 2020
The stars aren’t against you, but they aren’t good. A day governed by the moon. A time for reflection and growth. The trenca is governed by the goddess of childbirth. They combine to mark a day for new beginnings. Is it a renewal? Pixie coming back for you? Or the start of your time moving on without her? You can only hope for the former.
Thankfully, you had a little time to knit in Hau’oli. A small, embroidered hummingbird felt like your best creation. You tossed it into the ocean today with a prayer to Chalchiuhtlicue, shaper of your soul. Maybe she will be with you today.
*
“Hi, Pixie!”
The fox walks over with measured, quiet steps before pressing her muzzle against you. She sniffs your extended hand and you run it along her cheek and chin before moving your other hand up to scratch her ears. Then you slowly bring one hand over her body to feel for injuries. The other always stays with her head where she likes to be scratched. She’s uninjured. Her fur feels well cared for. Kalani isn’t hurting or neglecting her. Physically.
A cold breeze runs past you and your scars get painfully cold as phantom icicles stab into your body. You do your best not to gasp. Just ignore her. It’s not a good time to show weakness, physical or mental.
“You ready?”
She barks ‘yes.’
{Still think you want to stay with her when this is done?}
{Yes.}
Maybe she’ll feel differently afterwards. If you can just set things up so that she gets the final, decisive blow… It’s not how you want to handle the fight. Ideally, you’d lead with Coco to set up stealth rocks and deal with whatever the totem’s assistant is. Then into Pixie to slow down the vikavolt with icy wind so that Noci can catch up to it. Then let Nocitlālin do her thing until you win or lose.
“Want to lead the way?”
“Yes.”
*
Kalani trails behind you the entire way there. Because of course she does.
It starts to snow on the way over. Little pricks of cold fluff hitting your body before melting away. It’s something you’ve never felt in person. Only through mom’s memories. Alice would never take you up to mountaintops that were snowing because she hated cold and thought you were weird for wanting to go there.
You don’t know if it’s a good omen or not. The god of snow is also the god of punishment and suffering. But Pixie is an ice-type. On balance… on balance you have no idea.
*
“Someone’s here,” Pixie huffs.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Like the captain?”
“Maybe. Also a bug.”
She doesn’t care much about individual humans. There are far too many, after all. Same goes for bugs.
“Hello,” you call out.
“Hi! You must be Cuicatl.” Her voice is high-pitched and fast. She’s one of the youngest captains ever at only twelve. Her youth shows. Not sure what she did to become captain in spite of it.
“Yes.”
“Great. My name is Grace and I am the Trial Captain of Ten Carat Hill.” Her footsteps stop a few meters out and her voice drops to a whisper. “She already knew that, though, didn’t she.”
You smile. No need to be rude. “It’s good to know I’m in the right place.”
That seems to perk her up. “This is the totem, Buzzy.”
Wingbeats approach. They’re almost frighteningly fast, more of a drone than the sound of flapping. Nothing like Alice. Static fills the air as the giant lightning bug begins to hover nearby.
“Honored to meet you, Buzzy.”
He doesn’t bother answering. It’s not like humans can understand him, anyway.
“Wait. Are you the butterfree girl?”
You’re keeping track of the times you’re asked that. Helps you figure out what Miss Bell owes you.
“Yes.”
“And you work for VStar?”
She sounds a little bitter. The static in the air grows heavier and you can feel strands of your hair trying to push away from your scalp.
“I’m broke.” Americans say ‘broke’ when they mean ‘poor.’ You are never supposed to say ‘poor’ when talking about yourself. Or anyone you care about. You can use it to describe other people. Poor is a moral concept. Broke is not.
“They almost killed all the grubbin. Kept catching them and shipping them away—"
“I’m a broke orphan refugee.”
A lie. You’re here on a challenge visa, not to seek asylum. And your father is probably still alive. She doesn’t need to know that.
“Still shouldn’t work for them,” she mutters. The static dies down a moment later. “If you’re going to use the vulpix you should take it off its harness.”
“Blind. I need her help.”
You can practically feel Pixie perk up at that. She’s proud to be needed. She might leave anyway. You doubt she loses sleep trying to square the two.
“Oh. That’s right. Stupid. Follow me, then.”
You can feel the snowfall fade and the temperature shift when you get into the cave. Your footsteps begin to echo. The vikavolt is flying somewhere ahead of you and Grace.
“You cleared the water trial already?” Grace asks.
“Yes.”
“So you’ve been traveling? In the dark? While blind?”
“Last two cancel each other out.”
She stops walking. “Oh. Um. I feel like I’m saying a bunch of wrong things. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” You giggle to show how fine it is. And hopefully get her to forget that she hates you.
“You’re still really brave. And lucky. Mom won’t let me leave home except for work. Even though I’ve fought UBs.”
A casual reminder that if Buzzy went all out none of your pokémon could take more than a hit or two. Good thing the totems usually pull their punches. Offensively, at least. They might refuse to go down easily so that all of your team will need to put in work, but they don’t want to kill or maim weaker opponents. Once you get to your sixth you’d better be prepared to fight a totem at full strength. Thankfully it won’t be a vikavolt. Dodged a bullet there.
“Hiking in the cold has been an experience. Won’t miss it when the sun comes back.”
It had better. And soon. There are already rumblings about a flower war in the Yucatan. If the sun comes back soon maybe the tlatoani will see it as a good omen and stay his hand.
“You don’t need VStar, though. There are scholarships. If you just put in some time you can get the money you need. Or at least enough that everything else can be covered by battle prize money.”
“Did you use the scholarships?”
“No,” she admits. “My parents paid for some stuff when I was starting out. My mom used some on her journey.”
You have some of your own mother’s memories. She’d tried to find some. Spent a few weeks running around Nimbasa and Castelia writing letters and being interviewed. She got sixty dollars in the end. Spent more than that on postage and subway tickets. Would have told you not to bother.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Grace huffs in displeasure. She must’ve finally gotten the hint because she doesn’t press you further.
“When the darkness goes away and I can have a real trial, challengers will have to find some grubbin in the caves. Just imagine that part.”
“Is it actually harder to walk a cave in the dark?”
“Well, no, but the League says no puzzles right now. I’m fine with it because it means I don’t have to stay out in the cold as long, but it still isn’t what I was imagining.”
“A lot isn’t right now.” You’d always imagined you’d have your brother and at least Alice, Renfield, and Searah for this. More recently you’d thought that Pixie wouldn’t leave. Maybe Necrozma stole people’s dreams away with the light.
“True. Anyway, after your puzzle you’d meet me in the caldera and the totem would come out, but Buzzy’s already here so…”
He sends out a small ripple of static.
“I guess I should tell you that his partner today is a psyduck. Since you can’t just see her when she lumbers onto the field. Don’t think you can just muscle through Buzzy with fire or rock-types.”
She shouldn’t really be giving out hints for her own trial but it’s such a basic one. You will be using a rock-type, probably to take down the psyduck. The Dragonmother blessed the dragons with resistance to thunder, fire, and water. Coco can take a hit or two from the totem as long as he’s pulling his punches. An ice beam would hurt but maybe she can still get through and land a thunder fang. It’s not like you have better options. Pixie couldn’t do much at all to the water-type and Noci is better off dogfighting the totem.
The snow has gone away when you enter the clearing. Is that the psyduck’s presence or just a natural change in the weather? Or maybe an omen?
“You can take the leash off your vulpix now. Battle can begin whenever.”
You carefully, delicately undo Pixie’s harness while stroking her ear. Then you withdraw her back to her new ball. She’ll come back at the end, hopefully to score a final big hit and win the whole thing.
“Coco, let’s get started.”
She growls at her enemies and you can’t help but smile.
“Charge the psyduck. Prepare fire fang while you run.”
An unholy buzzing almost immediately breaks out. It’s like mosquitos except there are millions and they’re right inside your brain. You clamp your hands over your ears but it doesn’t matter much. You instinctively know that trying to use your gift would make it all even worse. Damn bugs with their anti-psychic attacks. And it’s not even aimed at you!
A pulse of cold makes your side freeze up. Ice beam from the psyduck, probably. Coco growls but keeps going. The buzzing lets up just in time for a crack of thunder to take its place. Hopefully that will stop when Coco gets closer. No good in striking your own ally with a thunderbolt. Then it depends what the vikavolt’s final two moves are. Maybe energy ball for rock-types? Sticky web or thunder wave to slow opponents? Roost to keep going? It’s a new-ish trial and there’s not much information online.
Another blast of ice makes Coco yelp in pain. Hopefully the fire fang is acting as a kind of shield. Hopefully.
“Thunder fang when you get close.”
There’s another thunderbolt and then you can hear the scream and growls. Coco’s latched on. She yelps in pain. “Hot water!” The words are muffled since she’s biting down but your gift gets them all the same. Thank the gods the vikavolt isn’t attacking.
“Keep going! Just a little bit more!”
What is the vikavolt doing, anyway? Its wingbeats have changed. Closer together.
Agility, maybe. Every second that Coco takes bringing down the psyduck will make the totem faster. That means Noci will have a harder time getting a hit in. There’s nothing you can do but wait.
It takes longer than you’d like but eventually Grace speaks up. “The psyduck’s down.”
You’re torn. Withdrawn Coco and prevent any more setup? Or stay in for a little bit more to put some stealth rocks up? The latter might get the totem to attack, solving both problems.
“Stealth rock into the air.”
Coco howls in fury. Her cries are met by another thunderbolt. You can still feel her conscious mind at the edge of yours, awake and raging at the sky. It takes a few more seconds for the totem to charge another bolt. The hairs on your skin stand up and another mighty crack of thunder echoes across the caldera. You can feel Coco’s mind slip away from yours as she falls unconscious.
“Good job. Return.” You expand Noci’s ball and hit the release button. “The partner’s down, go for Plan A.”
Plan A is Take Down. Repeat until one side is unable to battle or you get new orders.
{How many rocks are there in the air?} you ask.
{Nine. Mean size approximately eighty-two cubic centimeters with a standard deviation of seventeen cubic centimeters.}
Not as many as you would have hoped. {Try to herd him towards the rocks. They’ll hurt him a lot more than you.}
Another thunderbolt tears through the air.
{Acknowledged.}
You can hear the vikavolt’s wingbeats but not Noci’s flight. Most trainers would monitor the skies. Keep track of where the rocks are. What patterns the totem falls into. Try to find something exploitable. You can’t. You can really only stand still and hope for the best.
{Is he too fast to catch?}
The sound of a blunt hit and cracking bug armor answers you. {Negation.}
{If he starts to lose the damage race, he’ll probably use agility to get even faster until you can’t land another hit. Tell me if that happens.}
{Acknowledged.}
Another thunderbolt. And then nothing for a long time.
{UD_Totem_3 has selected Evasive Maneuvers;
[] Initiate Ramming
[] Evasive Maneuvers
[] Telekinesis
[] Claw Swipe
[] Energy Beam
[] No Action}
{Telekinesis. Try to move the rocks into him.}
You take out the Normalium-Z from your case and slot it into place. Ideally, you’d let Pixie use the Z-Move, but you don’t have an ice crystal yet. Still not sure how you’ll get one of those.
Or if you’ll need to.
You start the motions to bring out Z-power. Going slow this time. Doing it properly so nothing happens. It’s actually easy enough. Just dancing. You start to bring your hands into the final stance and—
Sirens wail, babies scream, the mosquitoes are once again invading your head. It’s a little easier this time because you were prepared, but it still hurts. It takes all your remaining focus to move your arms into position, move your body just so, and set off the Z-move. Energy surges through your arms and drains your body as the terrible buzzing ravages your brain.
You black out before you can see the aftermath.
*
The sun shines without mercy. Your skin feels like leather that’s shriveled up and hardened under its rays. The sand beneath scorches a finger that strayed off your makeshift blanket. You can’t be bothered to move it. Not when your mouth feels like you’ve already shriveled up into a skeleton.
“Now how’d you get here?”
You startle.
Another human?
Here?
Are you hallucinating?
Or are you finally free?
*
{Alarm Lvl 1011: Connection to UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca Lost;
Alarm Lvl 111: Circuitry Overloading;
Alarm Lvl 101: Heat Vent Malfunctioning}
{‘m fi…ne}
You withdraw her before she can question that. Try to withdraw her. The cold air tells you that you hit the wrong ball and let Pix out early.
Early? Were you waiting on something?
Trial.
“Are you okay?” Someone taps your shoulder and it takes you a moment to remember who she is.
“Yeah. Just. Dreamed? I think? Happens.”
You giggle at the joke. Dreaming does just happen. You feel out Noci’s great ball to make sure you’re pressing the right button this time. Then you withdraw her. For realsies. You reach out an arm to Pix and pull her close to your side. Huh. When did you get on the ground?
There’s a funny feeling on your side when you’re cuddling Pix but you kind of just ignore it. “You’re a little pain in the ass, you know? And I love you. Like a lot. Sweet little fox. So soft and pretty and smart.”
“Come on, let’s get you back to the Pokémon Center,” the small girl says.
“But there’s a trial…” You gently push Pixie away as your mind starts waking up. “Use, uh, icy wind? Slow him down?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Relaaaaax. I think I’m just allergic to bug buzz. And Z-power.”
She’s supposed to be a trial captain, right? Can’t she just captain the trial.
Pixie decides that you’re serious enough. Cold air whips around the field and your side feels funny again. A curse? Right. There was the other vulpix. Big vulpix. And she cursed you.
And you’re doing this to keep your sweet fox from big vulpix.
Your hair starts to stand up and lightning strikes nearby.
“Keep at it for a bit. Then, um, aurora beam?”
“I should stop this…” The captain mutters. And then she doesn’t do that. Good. Pixie deserves to feel special.
There’s more cold and lightning. Your hair is starting to frizz so you know it’s got to be really bad for Pixie. Poor girl. You’ll give her a long brushing / cuddles session later.
Or big vulpix will.
You frown.
Pixie’s going away. Just like everyone else.
“Enough, Buzzy. It’s over. She won.”
“Yes!”
Pixie walks back over to you and you get some stuff out of the treats bag you had prepared. A paralyze heal, a super potion, and a few pokémon treats. Not the blood icicle thing because it would just melt and get everything else bloody.
After you finish spraying Pix down with the paralyze heal something big-ish starts walking towards you.
“My heracross is going to pick you up and take you to the Pokémon Center, okay?”
“Gimme a minute. Need to finish treating Pix.”
“They can also take care of her at the Pokémon Center.”
“But I wanna do it.”
So unfair. You had this all planned out and now she’s ruining it.
“Can you withdraw her, please?”
“Not until she’s had her treats.”
The captain mutters something about her training but still waits until Pixie’s nibbled up everything from your palm.
*
Every Pokémon Center’s sickbay smells about the same. Lots and lots of disinfectant, the faint smell of a flowery air freshener, and a hint of chansey egg. You hate that you’ve spent enough time in them to memorize all that.
“Hello, miss. Are you awake?” A nurse. Her voice drips with the medicinal fake-sweetness of cough syrup.
You groan something out that was supposed to be a ‘yes.’
“Can you understand me?”
“Y-yeah.” You were expecting your throat to be horribly dry. It’s strange that it isn’t. Or that you expected that in the first place.
“Can you tell me your name?”
“Cuicatl Ichtaca.”
“Date of birth?”
“Seven Tititl Tecpatl”
“Um.”
“16 September 2004.”
“And today’s date?”
“February 4, 2020.”
“Current president?”
You hiss. “Do I have to say his name?”
“Yes.”
You do. Reluctantly. If you ever needed to prove that tlatoanis shouldn’t be elected your argument would start and end with this man.
“Can you look into the light for me?”
“No.”
There’s a long silence.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was going to use a Z-Move and…” Oh no. If the trial got cancelled than you fucked up your entire plan with Pixie. “…I’m guessing that didn’t work out so well.”
“You don’t remember anything after that?”
Now that you think about it little pieces filter in. Overbearing heat and dryness. Hugging Pixie while lying down on wet grass. Complaining to someone while you were being carried. It’s all blurry, though. Like something you might’ve read about in a storybook years ago. You tell the nurse as much.
“Heat and dryness, you say?”
“Yes.” Even though that shouldn’t fit in with Alola being a freezing hellhole right now. “Is that bad?”
“I don’t know.”
It takes her a bit to figure out what to do with the information you gave her. Enough time for you to ask a question of your own.
“How are my pokémon?”
“The vulpix and tyrunt are being treated for electrical burns. Nothing too bad. Should be released within the hour. Metang can repair minor circuitry damage on their own and the armor plating was unharmed. I would keep it out of its ball for a while.”
She seems more comfortable talking about their injuries than yours. Makes sense. The ‘nurses’ are usually veterinarians and not doctors. Most trainers don’t get hurt as much as their pokémon. You’re just the unlucky exception to the rule. At least Pixie and Coco are fine.
Wait.
“The vulpix fought?”
“It certainly seems that way.” You can practically feel her frown in the air. “Do you not remember that?”
“No. She was supposed to fight at the end.”
“Hmph. I can’t imagine a captain would let you fight in your condition.”
But apparently she had.
“Do you know if I won?”
“You did, yes.”
Then everything worked. Pixie got to prove herself. Even if you don’t get to remember it.
“How hurt am I, anyway?
She sighs. “I don’t know. You might have fainted from the Z-move and then hit your head on the ground. Grace doesn’t think you did, but she might be wrong. You also have a history of bad reactions to Z-power. Those usually go away after repeated exposure and I’ve never heard of hot flashes accompanying them. I want to keep you under observation for a little while longer.”
Does that mean you won’t get a chance to talk to Pix before Kalani gets into her head again? “Can I see my vulpix when she’s healed.”
“I can send her in.”
She walks out a while later without telling you she’s leaving. At least you can feel out a cup of water near your cot. You guzzle that down until the phantom parching in your throat goes away.
The nurse returns with Pixie a few minutes later. And then gives you your privacy. “Are you hurt?” you ask. You think about running your hands through her fur to check but if she is hurt she might not like it. She might lie to cover for Kalani, but you doubt she feels the same way about stupid bugs.
“No. I am strong.”
You rub her ear. “So was the bug. Sure you aren’t a little hurt?”
“My fur stood up. It was horrible.”
Figures she’d care more about that than the burns.
“I’m sorry you had to go through such a thing.”
She growls in agreement.
“Did you change your mind about leaving me?”
“No.” It’s a quiet denial. Like she doesn’t like admitting it. “I was adopted.”
Adopted by a ninetales, she means. Your adoption means nothing in comparison. Your hopes begin to spiral and sink but you pull yourself together before she can see it. There’s still another chance. “Okay. You’ll stay with her when I leave in a few days. Then… soon I’ll fight the kahuna. The person you only get to fight after beating the big enemies you’ve been fighting. It’s the ending of everything you’ve been doing for the last few months. I would gladly have your help if you want to be there.”
“I do.”
You relax. Good. She doesn’t hate you. She just places too much love on someone she’s known for three days. Give it another week and she might have learned more about her new “mother” and changed her mind.
You pull her in for a full embrace. “You’re so fluffy,” you say. “And pretty. And smart. And strong. No one who really knows you would ever want to leave you. I’m sad you’re going but I’m glad you’re happy. If you ever want to come back, I’ll take you in a heartbeat.”
She purrs.
Alice rumbled like that sometimes when she was happy.
Rumbles.
She’s still alive.
Still out there.
You’ll see her again.
You’ll see Pixie again.
Everything will work out.
It has to.