CHAPTER 71

I braced myself, feeling the beating of my heart quicken as the end of my time with Amanda came to an end. It was our first ‘online session’ together, and I assumed that she always tried to nudge the conversation toward my nightmares to get to the subject at least a little bit before we had to go our separate ways, and it was almost scary how good she was at it. Although of course, she would never force me to talk about them if I didn’t want to.

I did, though. And I also didn’t. It was just… it was just hard to explain.

“Speaking of not sleeping enough,” Amanda said, her face on Cecilia’s giant television screen. “Have you stopped using Togetic to induce sleep?”

Cece had lent me her entire hotel room for this and kicked everyone out. Not that they minded, of course. They were happy that I was getting help, and they hadn’t judged me whatsoever when I told them I was getting therapy. Even Pauline hadn’t made a snarky comment.

“Yeah,” I breathed out.

“Take your time,” Amanda softly said. “You’re in a safe place.”

“I thought they were getting better, especially when I slept with my… friend Cecilia. But I’ve been getting them, and they’ve been worse since the leak three days ago,” I said, my throat suddenly feeling dry. “I’m always in this… in this maze-like place that looks like the power plant, and I always get trapped by Dusknoir and stabbed by Mars at the end over and over. When I wake up, it’s like I have the wind knocked out of me. For five seconds or so, I just— I can’t breathe, or I guess I forget how to. Then I start getting… this dull, throbbing pain wherever I got stabbed somehow. Finally, I take a breath and scream my heart out. Then I feel the softness of my bed, the sweat, and tears against my skin, I stare at my ceiling, and I finally remember,” I explained. “I remember that it’s not real.”

I was feeling scared by the end of my words. With the leak, Mars could have even more information about me if she wanted. It wouldn’t take that much research to find out I was in Eterna city right now, or the Pokemon center room I stayed at, or where I used to live in Jubilife—

Calm down. I already warned dad about it, it’s beyond your control now.

Amanda stayed silent for a second as my words sunk in. “I’m sorry. No child should have to go through that,” She said with a gentle, sad look. “I can see how the leak made things worse, but I promise you that the League will do everything in its power to bring Team Galactic to heel. You said that having your friends around helped you a lot, right?”

I nodded. “Hmhm.”

“Good. You told me about Denzel before, but I never heard about the others. It’s good to have a group of people you can lean against and rely on.”

“I met them after our last session together, actually,” I said. “They’re great people. I wouldn’t have made it without them.”

“I’m sure that’s correct. But— and I don’t mean this in a bad way— from the stories you’ve told me, it seems that you’re helping them a lot more often than they’re helping you,” Amanda said.

I frowned. “They never asked me for that help. They’re not taking advantage of me, I just… I just want to help my friends. Isn’t that natural?”

“It is! It’s a wonderful thing, and it makes you a great person, Grace. But between your nonstop Pokemon training, the nightmares, and being all of your friend’s support crutch… I fear that you’re going to crash hard soon.”

“No, I’ll be fine,” I dismissed. “If I start feeling tired, I’ll tell them and take a break.”

“Exhaustion can sneak up on you very quickly. One minute, you can feel completely fine, and the next, it’s like the whole world is weighing you down.”

“I’m good, Amanda,” I said. “I think it’s just the way I am.”

“Very well,” She said after a pause. “But just ask yourself this, Grace: when was the last time you took a day for yourself? With nothing work-related?”

“Well— I… uh, I guess it’s been a while. But I don’t consider being there for my friends something akin to work. They’re here for me too.”

“Of course. Forgive me if I went too far, Grace. I worry that you’ll overwork yourself soon—”

Her alarm started to ring.

“—And that’s the end of our session. Sorry that we had to reschedule on such short notice. My job forces me to make in-person sessions a priority, even though I keep telling them that's nonsense. Now you’ll have to wait until you get to Hearthome for our next one. The next four days are already full for me, and you’re leaving in three days, right?”

I nodded. “The next four days are full? That’s strange. Plus, you said that you were already swamped.” I asked. “What gives? You’re usually not that busy.”

“I’m afraid I’m required to keep everything about my other patients confidential. You wouldn’t like it if I just told anyone else your problem, would you?” Amanda asked.

“You’re right,” I quickly replied. “Goodbye, I guess. Have a good day.”

“You have a good day too, and don’t forget to rest!”

The connection was cut off, and I just leaned deeper into my seat and stared at nothing in particular for a few minutes. It felt nice to talk to Amanda again, but she had been right. A video feed wasn’t as good as actually being in her office. Still, trainers were always on the road, and I couldn’t afford to stay idle too long. I got up and grabbed some water from Cece’s fridge before making my way to the exit. I opened the door and peeked my head out, worrying that one of the old rich men that had moved to the top floor would see me walk around in just shorts, but the coast was clear. I ran on my tiptoes to Louis’ room and knocked.

Justin let me in.

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“Did you start already?” I asked.

“Well, no, we obviously waited, but I wanted to ask you if that meeting went well…?”

I smiled. “Yeah, it felt good to talk to someone. Where’s everyone?”

Justin led me to the living room, where a chaotic display could be seen. Denzel and Pauline were playing some sort of card game, and I took solace when I saw that the girl was losing horribly. I could tell, not because I knew the rules, but because she was swearing over and over. Emilia and Louis were spectating on the edges, egging them on in between their other activities. Emilia was brushing Rockruff’s fur and the blond boy was trying, but failing to mimic her with his Vulpix. Cece looked stricken with worry until she saw me enter, and she rushed to me, grabbing both of my hands.

“Are you alright?! Did she treat you well? I can get you a paid professional therapist if you need it—”

I smiled before interrupting her. “Amanda’s great, you don’t have to worry about her.”

“I still wish you told us you were doing therapy,” Pauline said. “I can’t believe Denzel hid it from us.”

“I mean, it just never came up, I guess,” I said. “All of my previous sessions with her were in Floaroma after the…”

“You don’t need to say anything,” Denzel said. “Let’s get your mind off things and start planning the next leg of the journey, shall we? It’s a big one.”

We all took our seats on the couch.

“Crap, I forgot my notebook,” I groaned.

“No need for notes,” Pauline waved her hand. “Just commit everything we talk about to memory.”

“I mean, I could do that, but taking notes just makes it easier to remember.”

“All I hear is moaning and complaining—”

“Shh, stop bickering!” Emilia said, somewhat startling her Rockruff. She petted the Pokemon, who laid his head back on her lap. “Denzel, start us off, please.”

My best friend clapped his hands, clearly giddy with excitement. “Alright! So in three days, we’ll leave for route 206. This will be the easiest part of the journey since we have the cycling road to help us. It’ll only take around six hours of riding if we count the rest stops to get through.”

I nodded. I remembered hearing all about the cycling road on the news when I was around six or seven. The project had originally started in an attempt to link Eterna city and Oreburgh together, so trainers would be able to avoid taking the long way, which included braving Eterna forest. It had stopped at around seventy percent of the way there, though.

“Why did the cycling road never finish getting built?” I asked curiously.

Emilia sprung up. “When the League announced the project, Floaroma, and Jubilife threw a fit about it, including their representatives in the Directorate. Floaroma’s entire economy— along with selling their energy— relies on attracting trainers passing through and making them spend as much money as possible before they leave. Jubilife would have been less affected, but they still enjoyed the fact that trainers had to pass through them since they’re kind of the hub between Floaroma, Eterna, Oreburgh, and Canalave. The cycling road would have removed their advantageous position. In the end, both cities, along with Canalave, tanked the budget for the project to finish, and we ended up getting what we have now… this half-finished cycling road leading to route 207.”

I listened attentively, nodding at each piece of information. “Thank you.”

“Great as always, Emi. How good of you to educate those in need.”

“Bla, bla, bla,” I said. “I bet you can’t even ride a bike since you were obviously driven everywhere as a kid.”

Pauline blushed, clearly caught off-guard. “That isn’t true at all! I learned like everyone else!”

“Are we done?” Denzel groaned, raising his hands. Pauline and I nodded, still side-eyeing each other. “Thank you! Like I said, we get to route 207 in six hours, then we’re on foot. From there, it’ll take a week or so to get to the entrance to Mount Coronet, not because the route is long, but because the terrain is a bitch to walk through. Think route 211.”

We blanched a little at the mention of Mount Coronet.

“Don’t worry too much, a lot of the cave is patrolled by rangers, but there is a small stretch in the middle that’ll be difficult to get through since it’s too deep in. Basically like Eterna forest, but only for two days,” Denzel said, looking at Emi. “Feel free to get yourself a plane ticket, by the way.”

“I… I have to think about it,” Emilia said. “Beldum would be a great help to everyone.”

“Don’t force yourself,” Louis said. “We’ll live.”

“Anyway, in total, that’s six days to get through Mount Coronet. This’ll be the first actual hard cave to get through, and we’ll need some caving gear. Helmet, headlamp, pads— there’s apparently a lot of water in that section too, so we might need wetsuits.”

“Ugh,” Pauline groaned. “At least it’ll be quick.”

“The hard part will be quick. The edges of the cave itself will be hard to traverse, even if the wild Pokemon will be weaker. After that, we have route 208, which takes around five days to get through. The first… eighty percent of it is just Mount Coronet, but on the outside. Then we have to scale down the mountain— don’t look at me like that, there’s a path to follow! After that, we’re basically there already,” Denzel finished.

“So… eighteen days just to get to Hearthome,” Justin quickly counted. “That’s a long trip.”

“Yup. Don’t worry too much about the time it takes to get gym badges though. Pastoria, Veilstone, and Sunnyshore are all relatively close to each other. The main time sinks will involve getting there, then all the way back to Canalave and getting up to Snowpoint,” Denzel explained.

“So I suppose we better start getting that caving gear then,” I said, getting up. “We also need to restock on food and stuff. Who’s going where?”

“Actually everyone, I have a question,” Emilia said. “Um, tomorrow, there’s a contest that I’d like to go see, and I was wondering if you guys would… go with me?”

“Of course!” Pauline smiled. “Why were you even scared of asking?”

Denzel raised a hand. “Actually, I’m not the biggest fan of—”

Pauline shot him a murderous glare. He coughed.

“—I’ll go, obviously.”

“Good. Emilia, your parents still haven’t called, by the way?” Pauline asked.

“No… which is odd,” she answered.

“Thinking about it, none of our parents have called after our… less than stellar performance,” Louis said, looking at Justin. “I expected to get yelled at.”

“Maybe they’ve finally seen reason,” Justin smiled. “Let us not speak about sensitive topics. I’ve always been a fan of watching contests on television, so I’m glad I’ll finally get to see one in person.”

I excitedly agreed. In a way, I had never been too interested in contests, but maybe seeing one would give me ideas on different move combinations for the future. After a few more minutes, we all dispersed and went to different stores. Denzel and Louis went to buy our caving gear, while the rest of the group went to buy… everything else, filling up our backpacks to the brim. The next day, bright in the morning, we all made our way to the contest venue, a stadium only slightly smaller than Gardenia’s gym, and it was surprisingly packed. Just seeing Emilia’s excited face was enough to make some of it rub off on me. I was intrigued to learn more about the world of Pokemon coordinators, but more than anything, I was happy she could finally make her dream come true.