~~~ Chapter 77 - More Questions ~~~

Letting my arms droop a bit, I would have sighed if I could have. At least without it sounding like a banshee howl. I knew the Looker was going to ask about me. It was obvious. Didn't want to believe it, because what's the chances of things always circling around me anyway?

Was just being a pokemon so hard? It was dumb of me to pretend not to notice the Looker earlier. As if they wouldn't be suspiciously following us around for no reason, waiting for when we were in the middle of the ride to strike. Why did they all look the same anyway?

His smell was so different from the others we had already met. I hoped that it was just an accident that they'd ended up on the train with us without anyone else in the car.

My little spar with Fidget was ongoing, which made it hard to pay attention. He knocked my left leg out, which was a feat, considering he had to get his own leg out from under me through my battle-dress. The leaves on it were thick and tough. They'd taken tough beats from strong pokemon, and don't easily give way.

I managed to hop on the other one without hassle and get the other tarsi by spinning and using the mass of the leaf-dress to keep me from losing my balance entirely. It was probably the pokemon part of me, but losing sucked. If the fight escalated and got nasty—and they would get real nasty—I would need to learn when to run, but I always found myself returning back to the fights.

I needed to stay competitive long-term, I should be a lot better at fighting than I was. That was my thought at the time. Unfortunately, I was still not paying enough attention to Lea—Fidget—I'd remember him by the name everyone actually called him by one day! It was like being a parent calling for a kid and then stumbling on which name to use.

Fidget managed to get one of my arms locked behind my back.

The grip he had on me didn't hurt much, but with the right twist and pressure, it would be pretty trivial to disarm me, since our arms were so small, and our blades could fillet.

The small protective layer would be shaved off in a bout of anxiety-driven tics. The pokecenters had already regrown my antenna, and some pretty nasty injuries before. Wouldn't be a surprise if my arms could grow back. Wasn't super excited to figure out how resilient I was on the train.

So, Leaf almost had me pinned. Not down onto the train floor yet, which was our mutually-agreed point of decision. Getting out of these holds was something that I couldn't figure out without getting almost-lethal. Avoiding hurting each other too much was for the best, so we kept our scuffles light.

While we were stalled in our little temporary stalemate, the Looker and Lanky were talking, which just stressed to me even more that there were no coincidences with those guys.

"Yeah, I don't believe you that you weren't following me," Lanky said to the detective, basically immediately after I had that thought. "I don't plan on being the next Dawn, if you guys keep following me around thinking I'll fall into either her or Lyra's footsteps."

Putting his foot down with the other humans had been pretty nice. It simplified the things we had to worry about and, well, I just got lucky by pairing up with him instead of any other human or trainer, I guess.

Should have known better than to see a Looker and not immediately think it was about me. Not being able to talk back meant communication was difficult. I could nod or shake my head, but even when I wanted to try, there were always more interesting things to do. Like getting suplexed by your taller partner.

Which was what immediately happened once I stopped paying attention for a split second. The partner who should be losing to you. It wasn't like he had taken a berry I had claimed not too long ago. I wasn't angry. He was just winning because I was holding back!

Getting up, the following round I decided to practice my mana while we tussled. Even then, while the Looker was talking to Lanky, and Fidget tried to maneuver, I was holding it inside, moving the ball around around, careful not to let it "bind" itself to any one body part, which usually meant it would release out of that region with an effect of some kind.

It wasn't that I avoided hurting the arena. It felt good, it felt right to be practicing my magic, and avoiding that was a side-effect! Obviously, if I held the energy that came in through my leaves, and pushed it through my mouth, it would become a solar beam instead of turning into regular food or whatever the leaves were doing.

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

I had already committed to not actively hiding that I used to be human. A few times, even! So I took just a bit of mana and compressed it with my frustration. It was a good distraction. A nice, wonderful distraction that if I messed up could easily result in a solar beam in a tight, confined space.

Summoning leaves and other grass-like moves were old-hat. Useful in zoning and arena control. When I held it in my leaf-blades, there was only a small visible effect, but Fidget started to notice and avoid them or pin it so the enhanced swipe of my blade went flat in our little bouts. Focusing on three things at once still meant that I would lose.

Though I was improving because every so often, I could draw our struggles to stalemate, at least.

Lanky was eventually going to be the Castelia city gym leader, and was one of the more active and story-relevant ones at that, if I remembered the game right. And I was stronger than Fidget, which meant I would end up being involved in the Big Events by proxy.

Which was fine. I left the forest thinking there would be some call to action. I knew what I was getting into when I left the place. And the nest of swadloon that I had spent a month caring for and learning how my body worked. I just hoped that I had been turned into a Leavanny, or given a new body, not— "Don't intend on anything of the sort!" the Looker said, almost exasperated.

A half-second later, I was pinned again.

"After this train ride, we'll leave you alone to do whatever you want to do, unless you call us first. You're clearly aware of the news, it's time we take a step back."

"Yeah, I don't buy that. Each one of you guys is different. You can promise something but it doesn't matter. A different one that doesn't know anything will show up," Lanky said. "I've met, what, four of you now? And even if you look the same… those gene mods you've got are doing you less favors than—"

"Lea!" I said, drawing their attention. He'd been getting more and more frustrated lately, and that was bad. I didn't like it. Lanky was supposed to be easy going, if lacking in confidence, not angry all the time! He wasn't the type to get irate like this. I had to keep myself from running my leaf-arms together, but he needed to know that he wasn't alone either.

With their attention, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do, so I said "aaaaaaaa" and let my arms down, and stood with the two of them staring at me for a half-second. With each close call, it was getting easier. Easier and easier to stop worrying. Avoiding being found out helped. But it was still hard! Even when I'd tried outing myself. But still! Still, I was only a tiny bit away from rubbing my blades again.

I'd been doing so well not doing it!.

"All right," Lanky said, turning back to the Looker. "I'm going to hold you to your word on that. I'm not going to be happy about you people if you aren't going to respect our boundaries."

He looked back at me for approval. Why was he looking back at me?

Ahhh I didn't know what to do.

The Looker raised up his hands. "I understand. You won't hear from me again, in any case."

Lanky let out a sigh.

"Well, looks like she's feeling talkative." He turned to me, "Why don't we ask her directly?" Lanky said, gesturing at me. "She's capable of making her own choices. But if she refuses to answer, you won't pressure her?"

The Looker just nodded.

Lanky then turned to look at me. "Choosing not to answer is an option."

I nodded, my antenna and leaf headdress swaying with the motions. I was still tense.

"Fair enough. It'll be quick. We don't have much time left on the train anyway," he said. He pulled out a folder from a bag he'd been keeping.

"Point at each picture you recognize," he said, pulling out six pictures. They felt… wrong. Like they shouldn't exist.

A girl with blue hair on a boat wearing scuba gear sitting next to a vaporeon. Nope.

A picture of Lyra, Meg and Ho-Oh. Yup.

A statue of Dialga. Yup.

A giant dragon of pure light.

A giant, red mosquito-looking thing standing in a forest, eyeing the photographer.

"Vaaaannnny," I complained when I saw the sixth picture.

"Guess she's refusin—" Lanky said, before I reached out.

No— I knew the blue-haired girl. I tapped her, specifically. How was she in the pokemon world though? Shunting that one right onto not-going-to-think-about-it territory.

I turned to look at Lanky for moral support. Lanky had scooted a few seats down. He gave me a thumbs up, but I could tell he was nervous by the scent in the air.

Knew who Dialga was, obviously, but not the statue or place the picture was taken in. I pointed at Lyra. I also pointed at the last picture.

Then I flopped on the floor, and both Lanky and Looker jumped out of the way, the mana that followed threatening to unleash itself, Fidget wasn't caught off-guard though, and I found myself covered in silk before anything actually happened.

"Thank you, Leah." The Looker said as the train finally pulled into our destination. "With quite a bit of luck, you'll never have to deal with me again," he said as he walked off the train, disappearing surprisingly into the crowd.

Lanky looked down on me, covered on the train floor.

"I think I'm going to name what you do there, a Move. You're clearly doing a pokemon move, we just need a name for it. How about… `Struggle Bug`?"

I was covered in silk, I wasn't hyperventilating or rubbing my blades—and hadn't!

It was progress!

Progress was good.

~~~