Skies As Grey As Battleships
- Chapter 10: Suspicions -
Touya had tried to make dinner as quickly as possible. He thought that serving four people more than decent food in under fifteen minutes was quite impressive, but Touko and Cheren hadn't really shared his opinion.
After getting the food onto the plates at a pace that was evidently too slow for some people, Touya sat down at the table.
"So, what were you doing that was so important that you forgot that it was your turn to make dinner?" Touko asked. There was too much innocence in her voice for her not to know the answer to her question. Or to think that she knew the answer.
... Though the chance that she did have the correct answer was pretty high, actually.
"I'd like to know that as well," Cheren added. Sometimes, Touya regretted being surrounded by insanely curious people.
"I had to ask N about something." Touya was preparing to explain to Cheren who N was, but Touko elaborated before he had the chance to do so.
"N is Touya's new friend."
"You made a friend?" Cheren asked skeptically. Touya glared at him, because he had actually managed to make friends before. Like Cheren and Bianca and... that was about it, and Bianca had been Touko's friend first, but still. It was the principle of the matter.
"Yes, and he's been visiting him almost everyday. I think it's so -" Touya hoped to whatever deities existed that she was not going to say 'cute' or anything remotely related to that horrible word - "interesting!"
Not really the word Touya was expecting, to be honest.
Bianca frowned in puzzlement. "How is it interesting?"
"Consider this," Cheren began, and Touya just knew that this was going to be some sort of lengthy analysis of his social skills. Or, rather, lack thereof. "It's unusual for Touya to willingly associate with someone who isn't myself, Bianca, or direct family. I assume he's only known this person for a week at most, and to go from strangers to visiting every day is a vast leap for someone with Touya's difficulties."
At this point, Touya was considering the merits of blatantly ignoring everyone.
"It isn't very nice to say 'difficulties', Cheren."
Okay, so, everyone except Bianca.
"... Regardless, it's true. And that's why it's interesting." Cheren turned his attention back towards Touya. "What is it about this person that you like?"
There was no way Touya was subjecting himself to this. He let a beat of silence elapse.
"How has the military been so far?"
A tactful change of subject that was not, but Cheren merely rolled his eyes and let it slide.
"It hasn't been awful. Warfare is a test of skill. It's almost... not entertaining, but engaging. At times, there's only myself and Servine faced with the opposing soldier and his partner. It's the on the fly strategizing that's both the most rewarding and the most brilliant."
Bianca's eyes widened in shock. "But, Cheren, you're killing people." The last part came out as little more than a whisper.
There had been moments when they were growing up that Touya had been slightly worried by Cheren's lack of empathy. His sense of empathy had seemed almost selective at times - he would never intentionally offend someone he liked, but if he accidentally offended them, he often didn't care. But he was protective of people in his own way, and there was no way that he'd ever take joy in killing someone.
To put it simply, Touya knew that Cheren wasn't a bad person. Just one with 'difficulties'.
"I know that."
And now the conversation was awkward, mainly because bringing up murder, no matter how state-sanctioned, was an almost surefire conversation killer.
Touya's eyes flitted nervously around the table as he waited for someone to speak. But after a couple of seconds of silence, in a rare show of assertiveness, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
"You said 'Servine'. Did Snivy evolve?"
Cheren relaxed minutely, and Touko shot him a grateful look. "Yes. She evolved about a month ago. She ran off earlier to play with Tepig and Munna, but whenever she decides to show up, you can see for yourself."
That explained why Oshawott had immediately rushed towards the back of the apartment - he'd probably sensed his friends in one of the rooms.
"You mentioned in one of your letters that you couldn't tell us where you were stationed. Now that you're here in person, can you tell us?" Touko asked.
That seemed to Touya to be a slightly dangerous question. At the very least, it wasn't the sort of question a person would ask unless they absolutely trusted every single person in the room.
Given all that had happened recently regarding Bianca, complete trust wasn't exactly something he could manage at the moment. But he knew that there was no way that Bianca or Cheren would ever betray either of them, and, for now, that was enough.
Cheren nodded. It went without saying that what he was about to say was not to be spoken of to anyone else. "I was stationed in Sinnoh."
"Where were you, exactly?"
"A place called Snowpoint City," Cheren answered, frowning. "As the name suggests, it snowed constantly."
Touya tried to recall the basics of Sinnoh geography that he'd learned in elementary school. He had an image of a continent branching out from some sort of central object, but wasn't sure if that was correct.
Come to think of it, after second grade, he hadn't actually studied anything related to other regions. It was probably to foster some sort of nationalistic sense of affection for Unova, but wasn't there some sort of saying about that sort of knowledge?
Know your enemy. Or enemies, as the case might be.
Of course, whether Sinnoh was an 'enemy' or not was up for debate.
"That's on the northern tip of Sinnoh, right? With the snow, it must have been really cold!" Bianca sympathized. Touya wondered how she could remember Snowpoint City's location if he couldn't. And had they ever learned the locations of individual foreign cities?
"It was. Though the lake wasn't frozen, oddly enough."
"Is there something special about the lake?" Touko asked. Touya wondered if Touko was just grasping for topics of conversation or if she was genuinely curious about the matter. Knowing her, it was probably the latter.
"Not particularly. There's a legend that a rare Pokemon lives there, but when my company investigated the lake, we found a hidden group of Sinnoh soldiers - not a mysterious Pokemon."
"Speaking of soldiers," Touko began, "Crane mentioned in her address that a whole bunch of Kanto-Johto soldiers had been 'annihilated'. I thought our policy was to defeat the opposing side as quickly as possible and then take prisoners."
"That hasn't been true for months. Though it isn't a change that most civilians would notice."
Touya desperately hoped that no one was planning on bringing up murder again.
"Well, they should," Touko objected.
"Probably."
Cheren had a knack for slaying conversations with his abrupt replies. Usually, it was only the effort of other people actually interested in maintaining the conversation that saved it from the brink of death.
"But the changes are planned so that they're not noticed," Bianca pointed out.
"Obviously. When a policy is changed, Crane determines the best way to announce the change without actually doing so - it's a very subtle shift."
"... How do you two know this?" Touko asked.
Cheren and Bianca each reacted quite differently to the probing question. Whereas Bianca froze, eyes widening, Cheren simply turned his impassive gaze towards Touko. His expression betrayed nothing.
Touya found that he was rather interested in the answer to the question himself. He expected Bianca to know certain things that she wasn't supposed to, but even though Cheren had an almost suicidal sense of curiosity, he shouldn't have classified information.
Unless he was involved in the same sort of thing as Bianca.
While Cheren participating in anti-government activity was far more believable than Bianca doing so, it was still somewhat farfetched.
But Cheren wasn't going to be in Castelia for long, and so the window that Touya had to talk to him about his suspicions was already beginning to dwindle. Touya considered confronting both Cheren and Bianca at the same time, but wasn't sure if that was the best option.
"Through deductive reasoning," Cheren answered, not missing a beat. "It's easy to infer that Crane is a careful planner, and we know that she does enact changes in policy and in other areas."
It was a response that made sense, but there was something off. Cheren had a tendency to use far more words than necessary when he was lying, almost as if he thought that if he threw enough words into the fray, then the people he was deceiving would be so distracted that they wouldn't notice the lie.
Add to that the fact that Cheren had bothered to get into specifics regarding his knowledge of Crane. Cheren never stated something as fact unless he was completely sure about it - hypotheticals, inferences, and the like were always prefaced with a disclaimer.
So, despite his calm exterior, there was a high chance that Cheren was lying.
Touya had said that he'd try to drop by the Team Plasma headquarters tomorrow - if he was visiting anyway, he figured that he might as well use the time to also get N's opinion on the matter.
Not that that was at all necessary, but Touya would feel slightly more calm if he received another person's input.
To Touya's surprise, Cheren slid out of his chair and pushed his former seat back into its place quickly and efficiently.
"The facilities for soldiers back on leave closes soon," he explained.
"I've heard that the rooms are really cramped, though..." Bianca murmured with concern. "And you'd have to have a roommate, too."
"Why don't you stay here?" Touko asked. Seeing Cheren gearing up to object, Touko cut him off. "You're already here, so you wouldn't have to go anywhere tonight. And you'll have roommates that you actually like. And, I'm sure that Touya would be willing to take the couch, so you could use his bed."
Touya didn't mind sleeping on the couch for a couple of days, but he was a little annoyed that Touko would just offer his room without asking.
Cheren looked at Touko coolly, but Touya thought that he was probably considering any possible escape routes. It wasn't that Cheren hated the idea of staying with them - or, at least, Touya was fairly sure that wasn't the case - but he never liked imposing on someone, even if it was an open offer.
"Alright," Cheren agreed, with the air of a person simply indulging someone else.
The thought occurred to Touya that, with Cheren staying at their apartment, it would be very difficult to get him and Bianca alone. Touya was beginning to regret not putting up a fight when Touko had extended her invitation to Cheren.
A/N: I didn't actually intend for this chapter to take a dark turn. ... In retrospect, though, I should have expected something like that with Cheren involved. And just to make things absolutely clear, Cheren isn't saying that he enjoys killing people - more that he enjoys thinking up strategies to avoid getting himself killed. It's just that these almost invariably end in the murder of the other person.
Also, this is probably a good time to mention that there will eventually be side stories. Aside from one (which you'll probably want to read anyway, as it's going to concern N), they'll all be optional, as instead of being integral to the plot, they'll simply shed light on some of the side characters. Crane's is already mostly written, but the first one to come up will most likely be Cheren's.
So, there have been chapters where N hasn't really appeared much (... like this one). I am happy to inform you that that is going to change very, very soon.