Chương 76: 76-Inference

Amelia's not sure how long she was lying there, pressed into her friend's warm bulk, but after that unknown time she's brought back outside of her emotions by the feeling of a flipper repeatedly tapping her head. It's a motion that's clearly supposed to be a reassuring pat, but the execution is like her partner is trying to replicate something that had only been described to her at some point in the distant past. That causes her to give out a single wet laugh, muffled by her partner's bulk.

"I– I'm sorry Chansey. I– I'm not even sad. I'm just…" She tries, but loses her speech as yet more emotion pours out of her.

"Ansey." Her friend finishes for her, prompting Amelia to give a shaky nod.

"... Ye–Yea." She mutters.

"Overwhelmed is… a word for it." She'd thought of that word herself, but the idea all these emotions could be defined by a single word makes it feel wrong, smaller than it is to her. Her partner says nothing, she just continues to stand in the same spot slightly awkwardly, her flipper sporadically giving more head touches for a few minutes as Amelia lets… everything drain out. At some point she hears a familiar flutter of feathers and a thud as Swellow lands somewhere nearby.

That sound reminds her of her surroundings, so after a few seconds she pulls her face out of her partner's bulk and looks up with a shaky smile.

"... Thanks." She says, glancing at Swellow where he's sitting on a nearby rock, the sight of her so disheveled causing him to look slightly alarmed, though he tries to hide it. She gives him a reassuring smile. Chansey gives the same nod she always does when acknowledging something but doesn't have anything else to say in response. Amelia sniffs, then shifts so she's more comfortably leaning against her partner's bulk.

"... So…" She says with the beginnings of a laugh in her tone.

"Stopped a volcano from going off. Ain't that something?"

"... Cha." Chansey agrees, shifting her weight as she seems to be lowering herself to the ground.

"Chan an." Amelia lets out a genuine laugh at the massive understatement combined with her partner's normally flat tone.

"Sure is…" She giggles, wiping her face with the inside of her uniform apron and brushing a bit of leaf off her skirt and looks over to Swellow.

"You did great too! Getting Flannery's help and getting the chansey mob up the mountain definitely saved people, they don't bring out the helicopter unless someone is bad." Swellow nods a bit awkwardly, but even despite the awkwardness the complement has him slowly puffing up in pride.

"Ansey?" Chansey asks after a moment, her gaze causing Swellow to rapidly deflate as she realizes who brought the 'mon up the volcano." Cha anse chansey?" The bird lets out a strangled chirp, then slowly nods as he crouches down on the rock he's standing on as if trying to camouflage against it.

"... Swel?" The frightened tone that it was indeed him who brought the bandoller of pokeballs up to the volcano, combined with the look on his face, has Amelia break out in a fit of laughter that ends with her bringing a hand to her face, only to look at the offending limb with a grimace.

"Ugh look at me, I'm a mess, and for no reason. I'm fine!" Her partner hesitates, then gives a vague grunt in agreement. A few seconds of silence stretches into nearly five minutes before Amelia looks up at her partner's impassive face and sighs.

"You know you're crazy right? After learning that a volcano some crazy people were trying to blow up Mt. Chimney, it took you five minutes to work through that so when we saw the news you just went 'ok, time to throw my own pokeball' which I didn't realize you could do." She says, gesturing at the 'mon.

"I mean come on, everyone freaked out when we figured out what was going on with the volcano. But you? Cool as ice!" She laughs a little then sighs, looking back out at the silent forest.

"... Well. Whatever it is you have that lets you keep cool like that. I'd love to have some of it–"" An." Chansey cuts her off in a flat denial, composed expression breaking as she locks eyes with almost frightening intensity.

"An sey chans." –_– Tanya immediately regrets her outburst as Amelia flinches back.

"O–Oh…" The Joy says, trailing off to silence with a confused expression on her face.

"I didn't think you would– Sorry." The 'mon grimaces at the apology.

"No. I apologize, I reacted both poorly and irrationally." She says, looking off into the forest to watch the trees sway in the wind.

"You did nothing wrong." The girl really didn't, it was an earnest attempt at a compliment. Both fall off into an awkward silence again, and as they sit Tanya carefully forces herself to remain upright despite the bone deep exhaustion that saturates every part of her.

On some level she'd assumed the energy within her was genuinely endless, that there would always be more than enough to do whatever it is she commands it to do, but at the end when she was chasing the highest ranking member through the bunker she was struggling to stand, straining to movie and fight with near empty reserves through sheer force of will.

It wasn't the attacks that drained her the most, rather it was the healing, shoving inordinate amounts of power into herself to heal her burnt tissue and other blunt damages drained her like her reserves had a hole in them. The drain was surprising despite the fact she already knew it was an outstandingly energy intensive task. A task she failed. Tanya turns and looks up the slope to the streak of grey ash, rising high into the sky until it fades back to pure blue.

Her first instinct is to blame that false god, but his power, even when it's just twisting the minds of the people around her, has an unmistakable 'feel' to it. When she met eyes with the madman standing ready to die on that volcano, she did not sense that hungry golden energy. Perhaps just because the true mastermind under Being X's influence is hidden somewhere else, or the false god has gotten better at hiding his presence. But she doubts he could be so subtle, even if he was technically capable of it.

She's not sure his nature would even allow him to do something like that. Whatever the truth of that thing's involvement is, if he had his way she's certain he wouldn't have allowed the others to make it up the volcano to stop it. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. She's not sure when the gym leader, the soldiers, and her siblings appeared, but their response time was barely slower than her own.

Those few minutes could have been the deciding factor between success and failure, but it remains a question, and she doubts it. Regardless, she'll have to gain a more definitive picture of what happened as soon as possible, to determine the objective value of her efforts. To see what she'll need to do going forward.

The soldier tracks the minute contrail of disturbed high altitude air to the almost invisible speck of something flying between three thousand to three thousand five hundred metres altitude, but much faster than she's ever seen before. … They have to be feathering the sound barrier. She continues scanning the sky and sees at least ten similar contrails making wide arcs to circle the volcano, more soldiers mobilized and sent in less than half an hour.

If she did nothing other than relay her sibling's warning to the volcanologist, would they have stopped the eruption even if she didn't attack? If they knew what was happening any rational government would have put every effort into stopping them at the first tremor, the major earthquake was already a massive failure of national defence, They couldn't have already known. What if her sibling never came with the warning, and Tanya never even knew the danger was coming? Would they have stopped it in time?

But when she chose to come in herself, did that decision and her inability to eliminate the threat quickly enough allow the clear leader of the group to escape? Sure he was injured, she tracked him by the handprints he'd left on the wall, but she couldn't confirm the kill, and she failed to kill so many others despite throwing attacks with enough force she'd used a lifetime's experience to estimate as instantly lethal. The wrong lifetime's experience.

Eyes continue to track the graceful speed and power of those airborne soldiers and suddenly Tanya's exhausted body feels all the more slow, unwieldy, sluggish, and cumbersome.

The thick blanket of fat that's latched on to her and makes navigating doors a challenge begins to feel hot and smothering, the weight that's holding her to the ground, that made her so slow to get up the volcano and unable to score a clean kill on even a single one of the fanatics that tried to kill the people she– A low rumble fills the clearing. The Aerial Mage's eyes remain fixed on that barely visible speck in the sky, circling overhead.

She's been pretending to be something she's not, she's not a nurse, she'll never be just a nurse, she is a soldier. She needs to do more, she will do more, she'll rectify her mistake, she'll find the point of failure that allowed the danger to get this far then patch it herse– A hand gently rests on her side, and the rumble stops between one thud and the next. Tanya looks down from the sky and sees Amelia looking up at her with a confused yet worried expression.

"Chansey I… I don't know how to ask this but–" She stops, takes a breath to wipe her eyes and looks back up.

"What happened?" The soldier narrows her eyes slightly in thought as she's forced to abruptly change lines of thought. She'll soften the more harsh details, bring up what needs to happen going forward after the girl is a bit more emotionally stable.

"... I was planning on finishing the written summary of my assault on the Magma members later today, but I'll give you the abbreviated version–""No– I mean– Yes I want to hear about that, but that's not what I meant." Amelia interrupts, looking up insistantly.

"Chansey, I grew up with your line. I've probably met more chansey than you've met pokemon total, and out of all of them none– almost none of them behave the way you do." She says, correcting herself with a glance toward the shrine before pressing her hand more firmly against the 'mon's side.

"Something happened, it's obvious something happened. I didn't want to ask about it because whatever this is, it's clearly upsetting. But… The girl withdraws her hand and runs her fingers through her hair with an uncertain huff, for a moment looking away to the forest before catching herself and locking her attention firmly back to the 'mon.

"I wasn't sure for the longest time– I'm still not sure. But with how well you fight, your incredible talent with psychic energy, how nothing surprises you, even something as crazy as some criminals trying to blow up Mt. Chimney! I just–" Amelia stands up and takes a few paces away from Tanya, pausing, then walking her way back. With her standing and Tanya resting on the ground they're at eye level, and as the two look at each other, Tanya feels a strange sense of foreboding.

The girl comes to a stop in front of the 'mon, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and when she opens them again she asks a single question in a serious monotone.

"Chansey. Can you see the future?" … Five seconds of silence seem to stretch out to hours. Tanya blinks, and as if triggered by that movement Swellow's disbelieving squawk.

"Wait! You can see the future!?" He screeches, hopping to his feet and flaring his wings in shock.

"Is that why you know so much about flying!? Are you teaching me what I already learned– or– uh– what I will learn…" He trails off as Tanya begins to shake, body rippling as if another earthquake is starting localized entirely to the 'mon as she momentarily struggles to breathe. Until a single wheezing laugh escapes.

Then another, and another, until Tanya is choking on nothing but air and emotion as her partner's suspicion abruptly zags in a completely different direction to the truth, following a completely understandable series of logical steps but coming to a completely incorrect conclusion. Amelia leans back, an insulted expression on her face.

"H–Hey! I'm not joking! Anyone with enough psychic aptitude can predict the future and the amount of power you throw around matches at least an upper mid power psychic 'mon! It makes sense!" Her justifications only make Tanya laugh harder, her bulk rippling like aggressive jello as her lungs run out of air and she starts to wheeze." Ah– Amelia –" She struggles to speak as her partner's expression transitions from angered to upset.

"I– I assure you I can't see the future." She manages, her denial at first prompting disbelief, then confusion.

"But… you're… no one knew what to do! You figured out that team Magma was doing almost instantly, before anyone else did. How did you…" She trails off, but Tanya knows what she's asking, and the 'mon doesn't have an answer. Amelia, for all her naivety, is quite intelligent. Any half baked deception she can currently think of would be quickly pulled apart, a flat out refusal to explain wouldn't resolve the underlying issue, but the truth… The truth…

Tanya slowly blinks, suddenly very aware of her surroundings and the two pairs of eyes gazing intently at her. Amelia already has her suspicions, the truth is barely any more unbelievable than precognition. But… Her body presses in, those unjudging eyes looking back at her. Something like the truth, a lie with the component pieces of reality Even as she thinks that, the idea grinds against something deep in her core, magnified the more she considers what lie she would tell. The truth.

Memories hum just beneath the surface of her mind, two lifetimes lived, each cut much too short, and suddenly the reincarnate feels every one of those long years and experiences pressing down on her. Something on her face has Amelia's eyes widen just before Tanya opens her mouth.

"I just have… more lived experiences than you, and a good deal of those are… similar… to today." The soldier states, her tone slightly strangled, evoking a complicated expression from her partner." More lived– Chansey you're like.. two years old. I–""I'm–" She starts, but her voice chokes out after the first syllable.

"... I'll explain later. Soon. I just…" She pauses to form the words, her mind full of memories just as fresh as when they were first formed.

"I need to organize my thoughts on the matter." For a second, Amelia doesn't move, emotions flashing across her face too quickly to parse, but then she closes her eyes in a long blink, takes a breath, and smiles.

"... Ok Chansey. Later."