“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Nina gave a resolute nod to her father’s doubt.

It had been a year since her mother was admitted into the psychiatric ward of Cerulean General. Nina had long since moved back to her family home, after Patrick finally decided to “clean up” their apartment.

Though Nina did note that quite a few of their family paraphernalia were missing and there were some mild changes to their furniture. In particular, Nina’s bed had been replaced outright.

The two were currently in the hospital. After a whole year of gentle persuasion, Nina finally convinced Patrick to let her visit Leanette. Or so she would like to think.

In reality, it was Nina’s maternal grandmother who served as the lynchpin for today's events. After learning that her daughter had been sent to the nuthouse, she flew all the way from Pewter City on her Pidgeot, demanding to see her child. Nina just took advantage of the old woman’s fury and begged to tag along.

Of course, it need not be said that it was Nina who “accidentally” let slip her mother’s condition while on a video call with her grandma.

“Hmph!” Scoffed Melina Ashes. “My granddaughter isn’t a wuss like you! If she says she can handle it then it means she can handle it.”

Patrick was exasperated at his mother-in-law's carelessness. “Melina, need I remind you that Nina, despite her apparent maturity, is still a child. No one deserves to see their mother in that sort of… state.”

The older Melina snorted. “Says the man who forced my daughter into that state to begin with!”

Patrick frowned at Melina’s overt accusation. “Leanette was sick, and Nina was distressed. Your daughter was in desperate need of medical intervention. My only regret was that I didn’t try harder to persuade her to seek help sooner… I thought she would get better, ease up on her own once Nina grew up…”

He sighed “Maybe all of this could have been avoided had we dealt with it right at the onset.”

“What she needed…” Began Melina. “Was a smack on the head! You should have called me sooner. I would have knocked the crazy right out of her.”

“Need I remind you that your heavy handed upbringing was what caused Leanette to develop an aversion towards Pokemon to begin with!”

Nina could tell that her father’s voice was seething with barely contained anger. Recognising that the conversation was getting out of hand, she coughed and pulled on the pants of the two adults to get their attention.

“You two are causing a scene. Can we just go and see mom already before they kick us out?”

“Of course, dearie,” agreed Melina, with an uncharacteristically affectionate tone. The old woman picked up her granddaughter and sat the girl on her shoulder.

Melina Ashes was ridiculously strong and sturdy for a woman her age, owing to her long years of handling pokemon. “Sometimes you just gotta wrestle the unruly ones into submission.” As she was prone to saying. It was a shame that she extended the same philosophy to rearing human children.

“For all his smarts, your father has the stubbornness of a Tauros. It was a good thing that you didn’t inherit that from him,” commented Melina, much to Patrick’s chagrin.

***

“The patient’s mental condition is constantly in flux. There are times where she has shown dangerously violent tendencies, and times where she appears sane and fully in control,” explained the doctor who was escorting them.

“It’s hard to really predict what state she’s in at any given time or what might trigger her. So for the sake of your safety, I must urge that all visitors stay behind the yellow line,” he warned, his stern tone making it clear that he would not entertain any exceptions.

Nina and her two guardians responded in affirmation as the doctor opened the door to Leanette’s room.

The room itself was fairly barebones; white with padded surfaces and no furniture in sight, looking like something straight out of a movie. Leanette herself was in a straitjacket, her eyes widening when she saw Nina walk in.

“My baby… My baby…” she moaned whilst shuffling closer to her beloved daughter.

Melina frowned in disapproval at the state of her progeny. “Is this really necessary?! Even livestock are treated better than this.”

The doctor pushed against the bridge of his glasses and sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. Due to her extreme aversion towards Pokemon, we had no choice but to only assign human staff to her care. However, she has already injured a number of our providers to date. Her current circumstances can be considered as a last resort.”

“Come here, baby girl… Come to mommy. Mommy will protect you. Mommy promises never to let go ever again.” Leanette looked at Nina with pleading eyes, desperate for any form of physical contact with her daughter.

Nina came a bit closer but made sure to stay behind the bright yellow line as advised by the doctor.

“Hey, mom. I hear that you’ve been refusing Hypnosis treatment. Mind telling me why?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Leanette rushed towards Nina in a rabid frenzy, but was held back by a cord that connected her straitjacket to a corner of the room. Nina jolted back in surprise at the madwoman in front of her.

“They’re LYING!” She screamed. “Don’t listen to them! They’re trying to turn me into one of them… one of those MONSTERS!”

But then, in a jarring reversal, she suddenly calmed down and began speaking in a gentle tone again. “Come here, Nina. Mommy will protect you. I’ll make sure the monsters don’t get to you… It’s safe here by mommy’s side.”

Nina shook her head. “I want to help you mom. WE want to help you,” she said, gesturing towards her father and grandmother. “But we can’t do anything if you refuse treatment. Don’t you want to come back home? I miss you mom… Who’s gonna comb my hair for me if you aren’t around?”

Leanette’s eyes seem to gain a bit of clarity at her daughter’s plea. She looked towards her husband, then her mother, before stopping at the doctor who was standing by the door. The sight of the man in his white lab coat seemed to trigger her as she began frantically shaking her head.

“No, no… This is a trick. You’re not my Nina. This is all an illusion! They’re trying to TRICK ME!”

Nina recoiled at the sudden outburst. And her grandmother, who was getting increasingly impatient pulled Nina back and stepped in front of Leanette with her hands on her hips.

“Leanette Bellossom Ashes!” She called, using her daughter’s full maiden name. The woman in question reeled back in fear. It seems that Leanette still remembers Melina’s years of conditioning from when she was growing up.

“Get a hold of yourself! You're being an embarrassment to your daughter!” She scolded. Nina wanted to interject and say that she wasn’t embarrassed, but decided instead to hold back and let Melina take care of things.

Melina’s harsh words seemed to be getting through to Leanette as she frantically looked back and forth between Nina and her mother. “I… I…” she stuttered, before shaking her head in denial again.

Slap.

Nina, Patrick, and the doctor all looked towards Melina in abject horror after she just went ahead and assaulted her mentally ill daughter.

“Does that feel like an illusion? Is my hand real enough for you?!”

Leanette, with her watery eyes and swollen cheeks, frantically shook her head in response.

“Now you listen to me, girl. You WILL cooperate with your doctors, and you WILL obediently receive treatment. Do you understand?” Leanette nodded in response. “Good, and don’t let me hear anything about you assaulting your medical team ever again, do you hear me?! Or I swear to Arceus, I’m handing you over to Vileplum!”

“Please, no! Anything but Vileplum!” She cried.

Leanette Jones, whom Nina remembers as being a stern and obsessive parent, had been broken down into a little girl under the oppressiveness of her abusive mother.

Melina turned towards Patrick with a smug face. “See, what did I tell you? All she needed was a bit of tough love.” She then faced the doctor. “Alright, Doc. I’ll leave it to you to fix up this no-good daughter of mine.”

The doctor in question cleared his throat. “I’m not too sure about the legality of such ‘coercive’ methods.”

Melina looked like she was about to protest, so Nina grabbed hold of her hand and shook her head to silence the old woman.

Nina raised a hand out of politeness. “May I ask, doctor? My mother is clearly mentally unfit to be making her own decisions. Why do we still need her consent to administer any treatment?”

“A very good question, little Nina.” The doctor gave her a sagely nod. “Simply put, your mother did not have any advance directives in place prior to her admission. In order for us to override her fundamental rights as a human being, we need to follow the correct procedures and meet certain standards.

“In regards to the standards, your mother does show a sufficient amount of lucidity, which unfortunately, is still above the required thresholds.” He then made a quick glance towards Patrick.

“And in terms of procedures, your father and I have been hard at work, trying to get all the necessary paperwork completed in order for us to instate him as your mother’s proxy. But alas, as Mr Jones well knows, the wheels of bureaucracy spins at a Slugma’s pace.”

“So what now then?” Asked Patrick. “I agree that my mother-in-law’s methods are… unseemly.”

Melina scoffed.

“But my wife did give her consent, surely that counts for something?” It was clear that Nina’s father was also impatient to get the ball rolling on her mother’s treatment.

The doctor hummed. “Due to the dubiousness of how said consent was procured, I cannot in good conscience authorize any invasive treatment at this moment,” he said, much to the disappointment of everyone involved.

“However, I would suggest giving Mrs Jones a couple more days to get over today’s… trauma. If she is still willing to accept treatment at that time, then I will make all the necessary arrangements.”

It wasn’t the best news, but at least it was progress. The trio thanked the doctor for his consideration and said their goodbyes to Leanette before leaving the hospital.

***

Nina sat on a swing, idly watching as other kids ran around with each other or played with their parents.

Her grandmother had already returned to Pewter City, vowing to return and check on Leanette soon. It took everything Patrick and Nina had to persuade the domineering woman to wait for their call before coming back, for fear that she might complicate Leanette’s treatment.

If one were to ask if Nina had any love for her new world mother, the answer would be no. She does feel familial love towards her father, but Leanette had been nothing but vexing to her throughout her time here in this world.

The reason why she was so invested in the woman’s wellbeing was because of guilt. She had already displaced the life of the original Nina Jones, she did not want to drive her mother insane as well.

Though it’s arguable if Nina Jones would have even survived her accident if Miles had not possessed her body. For all that anyone knew, Leanette would have still gone crazy over the grief of losing her daughter.

“You looked like somebody went and kicked your Pikachu,” said a familiar voice.

Nina turned her head to see Charlie, whom she had become friends with over the past year.

“Hey, C,” she greeted. “Nah, I’m just thinking about life”

Charlie laughed. “We’re kids, what’s there to think about?”

Nina chuckled in return. “Not you. You’re about to turn ten. They’ll start calling you a teenager soon. By the way, how’d the interview go? Did you manage to get in?” Asked Nina, trying to shift the focus of the conversation away from her own issues.

Charlie responded with a smirk. “You’re looking at a future Vermillion Flame alumni, baby!” He declared, with a triumphant gesture.

Nina clapped in admiration, she knew how hard Charlie had been working to earn the school’s acceptance. “Congrats! Any plans for a celebration?”

Charlie scratched his head in the same sheepish manner as when he got embarrassed. By this point, it was pretty clear to Nina that the boy had a crush on her, not that she was planning to reciprocate. However, she did not want to reject him outright either. So she could only hope that her friend would meet new people over the course of his trainer school years and get over his little puppy love for her at some point.

“That’s actually kind of why I’m here,” answered Charlie. “My parents are planning on a camping trip to the Safari Zone during summer break to celebrate. I was wondering if you wanna come with?”

Nina’s eyes lit up at the possibility of visiting the Safari Zone, but almost immediately deflated when thoughts of her mother came to mind.

“That sounds great and all, but I’ll have to talk to dad about it.”

Charlie seemed a little confused at his friend’s dejected tone. “Mr Jones is a cool dude. I’m sure he’ll be ok with it.”

Nina shook her head. “I know, but it’s not about my dad per se… Regardless, I’ll still need to ask for his permission, so we’ll see.”

Charlie wanted to ask further, but ultimately opted to keep his nosiness in check. “We’ve still got plenty of time, summer break is over a month away, so no rush. And just so you know, Bobby and Nobita, two of my friends are coming as well. So is my baby sister. You’ve met Tiff right?”

Nina gave an awkward smile. “I don’t think Tiffany likes me very much.”

Charlie’s little sister was very attached to her brother. So naturally, she has taken it upon herself to think of Nina, her brother’s crush, as an archnemesis.

“You’ll be fine,” said Charlie, completely dismissing Nina’s concern. “Tiff just needs some time to warm up to people, is all.”

“Oh Charlie, you sweet innocent boy, if only you knew. Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.”

“Anyways, my mom specially ordered one of those large foldable baskets that you can attach to a Flying Type Pokemon. Said she’ll use that to fly us all the way to Fuchsia City. And dad said that he reached out to an old friend to rent us a lodge in the Safari itself, so we don’t have to sleep in tents.”

Charlie proceeded to excitedly talk about all of the things that his parents had in store for the trip. And Nina found herself genuinely smiling at the boy’s infectious optimism in spite of all her worries.