"Good morning, Ruby", Agnes said.
Three weeks after testifying, Agnes had been discharged from the hospital and moved into her new flat. It had only been a few days, but we had already established a routine that took into account the meticulous care she needed for her difficult recovery.
Topa hopped down from the queen-sized bed where she and I had been cuddling our human, and left the room. With a pained groan, Agnes carefully rotated to the side to seize her phone as the ninetales rushed to the bathroom and I walked up to her, sniffing at her forehead. It was only slightly moist, and I shook my head.
"Nothing?" she asked. "Good. That might explain why I feel more rested." She peered at her phone and grunted. "Not even eight in the morning. I have some time before Rakuen comes in."
She laid back down, shuddering slightly, and pulled me in to lay on her. Topa returned quickly, her eyes glowing with a faint light blue colour as a small box of medication hovered towards Agnes.
"Thank you, Topa."
The young woman straightened her back, pulled a pill from the box, then gave the package back to Topa as she seized a water bottle on her nightstand and gulped the drug. She put the bottle back and laid down again, absently petting me with one hand, and holding her phone with the other. The ninetales joined us soon after, but opted to lay by Agnes's legs instead of on her torso.
"Today is Saturday," she said. "I'm going to need to shower." She grimaced. "Not fun. Are you sure you don't want to join me?"
I lifted my head to vigorously shake it. A faint amused smile decorated Agnes's face, and she brought me to her mouth to give me a kiss. I opened my muzzle to give her a quick lick on the cheek in return, but refrained, and barked gently instead, looking towards her stomach.
"It's still hurting," she said. "The painkiller will take some time to take effect, but I'll be fine. Rehab yesterday wasn't as bad as it usually is." She let out a deep sigh and peered at her phone again. "Oh, Derek might visit today, he hasn't seen me since the hospital. I don't know if he will bring Pico this time, though. It's been over a month since you saw them, right?"
I nodded, and my eyes avoidantly moved away from my human. I wasn't too sure I wanted to see Pico again – and I certainly didn't want him to see Agnes in this wounded state as he probably didn't realise how bad her situation really was, having been denied entry to her room in the hospital – but I missed his unshakeable enthusiasm and protective he was of me. At the same time, I wasn't sure I was comfortable with him meeting Topa. I had no idea how they would react to each other.
I wanted to see Ilma. We hadn't seen each other since Agnes's testimony. Besides what we had heard from news reporters, we hadn't had any news from police either. The silence was beginning to worry me.
Agnes's hands on my body made those worries go away.
We cuddled in silence for several minutes. Her breathing was no longer raspy or laborious, but her breaths were shallow and quick, causing her to try to take deeper ones that made her groan. She kept a hand wrapped around me and petted me with the other as I laid on her chest above her breasts, my head locked between her chin and her collarbones, and my tails wagging rapidly.
An annoyed grunt escaped me when the doorbell rang.
Agnes let one out as well. "Whose turn is it today? Ruby?"
I barked to confirm and wiggled out of her comfortable embrace to run through the large apartment towards the door. Rushing to the interphone placed next to the front door, I stood on my back legs, leaning against the wall, dislodged the phone with my muzzle, and barked into it.
Rakuen's voice came from the device. "Ruby? Good morning! Would you let me in?"
I barked again, and extended a leg to push the button that opened the door to the apartment building. A buzzer rang somewhere far as I held my paw on the button, then the sound of a door being opened. I let go of the wall and sat at a respectable distance from the entrance.
There was a knock at the unlocked door a few minutes after, and Rakuen let herself in with a smile. Instead of her black and white uniform, she wore tight jeans and a white sweater with semi-long blue sleeves the same colour as her pants that formed a stripe along the edge of her round collar. Her shoes were perfectly clean white semi boots she had tucked her jeans into, with a thick sole but not much of a heel, and tightened upon her feet by thick laces I was tempted to chew on. She had a large backpack and carried with her a white plastic bag.
"Good morning, Ruby", she said, kneeling to give me a few pets.
She raised the white bag over her head as I began intently sniffing it – it smelled like the berries Agnes and I had eaten on our trip.
"No," she said. "Don't touch this, it's for later."
She deposited her bags on the large central island of our oversized kitchen, took off her shoes, and went to the bedroom. I didn't bother investigating the bag of berries further and heeled her instead.
"Good morning, miss Trokair," Rakuen said.
"Morning," Agnes groaned.
She sat up on her bed, having dragged herself back in order to rest her back against the wall, both of her hands resting on her stomach, fingers clenched into tense claws. Topa had not woken up from the movement and remained asleep at the foot of the bed.
The maid helped my human scoot to the edge and turn around to put her feet on the ground, lifting her opaque night gown so that it wouldn't get in the way, then dragged something to her that looked like a mix between a step-ladder and a chair, with the two front legs ending with small wheels, and a net in front of the seat. Agnes struggled to stand, her legs covered by compression stockings shivering as soon as they had to support her, and seized the walker with trembling hands.
"I hate this," she whispered. "It's humiliating."
"It's required for your legs and abdomen to regain strength," the maid said. "Is the nurse coming today?"
"Yes. We have about an hour."
"Let's get you breakfast quickly then."
I hopped onto the bed, gently licking Topa's head to wake her up as Agnes staggered towards the kitchen, lifting the part of the walker that was close to her to push her forward once she was secure on her two weakened legs. Rakuen tailed her, keeping her hands up to catch her should she stumble, and they made their way to the other room without problem. It took a bit of effort to wake the ninetales up, but when she noticed Agnes trying to walk in the distance, she stretched and followed me.
"What is this?" Agnes asked as she sat on her walker by the island, pointing to the white bag.
Rakuen had pulled a few pans from the cupboards, as well as milk and eggs from the fridge, and turned around.
"I went to the market to get the berries you mentioned," she said. "Three of each, as you requested."
Agnes pulled them out of the bag. There were five kinds – one pink that resembled a peach and that I had loved, one of a strangely vibrant blue colour that looked like an apple, two resembling grapes but purple and orange, and the last one similar to an oversized lemon – all of which I had tried in the forest. She inspected them with a large smile.
"All right. Rakuen, you get half of mine. Ruby, Topa, come here."
"What?" the maid cried, turning around. "Agnes, I can't eat pokemon berries. I've tried before and I got horribly sick."
"I promised Ruby I would try these once I was home," Agnes replied. "Unfortunately, things happened and the berries I collected rotted, but now I'm home so I'm going to keep my word."
She directed a large smile to me, and I barked with enthusiasm in return. Topa and I sat by the table, waiting patiently.
"You shouldn't eat them either," Rakuen said with a concerned frown. "You're going to have severe vomiting. Are you even able to?"
Agnes looked down at the berries, her gaze becoming bitter and serious. "Oh, I can. I spent most of the first week vomiting everything I was given. It was good news, they said, it proved that my stomach was unharmed and was able to constrict itself, so the cut wasn't as deep as it could have been. It hurt so bad I refused to eat anything and they ended up feeding me through an IV line. So, if I'm going to vomit the berries, so be it. At least this time it will be my choice."
She picked the lemon-looking berries, gave one to each of us two pokemon, and cut herself a small part. She held it up to her eyes, elbows resting on the marble top of the island, breathing rapidly. Finally, she turned to us and smiled.
"Eat up," she said.
She threw the piece of berry in her mouth as Topa and I began eating ours.
She shuddered with a disgusted wince. After a few seconds, her grimace disappeared, and she chuckled gently instead – until her belly reminded her of its state and she groaned in pain.
"Looks like I'm one of the lucky few," she said. "Let's try the others."
The others passed just as well, although they were all accompanied by more or less severe faces of disgust. Once she was done, she gathered her dented berries, and gestured for Rakuen to take them.
"I guess you can add these in for lunch or dinner," she said as the maid picked up the fruits. "We'll keep the rest as treats for Topa and Ruby for the next few days."
Breakfast was quick. Agnes was still unable to eat much, and with all the berries she had tried bits of, there was probably little room left in her stomach. She gave an entire egg from her plate to Topa and I each, which we carefully ate with wagging tails, and I got to drink the rest of her coffee cup – the ninetales having tried coffee before and hating it – while Rakuen began cleaning the kitchen and Topa was given a bowl of hot milk.
The ninetales was the one who went to open the door when it rang again, and the nurse let herself in, wearing casual clothing, but carrying two backpacks with her. She didn't greet either of us pokemon – she was still a stranger to us – but greeted Rakuen by her first name and gave her one of her bags. My human had been forcing herself to limp around the flat, haunched over her walker to keep herself standing, and was panting on her bed when the health professional entered.
The nurse crossed the gigantic flat, ignoring the enormous living room she passed through, to join Agnes in her room. I followed her closely, tails and ears laid, while Topa opted to withdraw to one of our numerous sofas.
"Good morning, Agnes," the intruder said with a large smile. "How are you doing?"
"Good morning. I'm doing okay. Pain is getting better slowly, but I don't feel like I'm making any progress on walking."
"It will take time. I've brought you a new chansey egg."
Agnes groaned with a grimace worse than she had when she tried the berries. "Do I have to eat these things?"
"No. But your recovery will be ten to twenty-five percent faster if you do. So, for you, it will cut your four months of rehab into just three."
"I'm likely going to have to repeat the year anyway," Agnes said, her voice shaking with disappointment. "One fewer month of being crippled won't change anything for me. And I don't even know if I will recover enough to continue my studies at all."
"I would advise you eat them still."
Agnes held her breath for a moment, then let out a long tired sigh.
"Let's get the shower and bandage over with," she said. Then, she called, "Rakuen?"
"I'll get the shower ready," the maid shouted from the kitchen.
She passed by the door of the living room, rushing through the corridor to disappear into the bathroom next to Agnes's bedroom. A noise of running water was heard shortly after.
While the maid busied herself preparing the shower and the material that would be needed to care for her master, the nurse helped Agnes up similarly to how Rakuen had an hour before, then held a ready hand in front of her as she stumbled with the walker towards the bathroom. My human turned her head to me before going away with a failed attempt at a smile – replaced with a worried frown in anticipation of the unpleasant exercise that taking a shower was – and, as before, I stood where I was in silence, staring back and fretting, knowing that she was about to go through a painful process and there was nothing I could do to help her.
Topa peeked from the living room. "Shall we continue?"
"I'm coming," I said.
I opted to follow Agnes to the bathroom with encouraging barks while on my way. Although the nurse frowned in anger towards me, Agnes smiled wholeheartedly.
"Have you changed your mind?" I shook my head. "Are you just trying to cheer me up? Thank you. I'll be all right, you go play with Topa until I'm out."
I barked once more, and withdrew – ignoring the nurse who closed the bathroom door behind me with a satisfied grunt – to join the ninetales in the living room.
It was a room only slightly smaller than the living room in the mansion. To the right from the door, a set of white sofas were arranged in a half-square around a large low table made of perfectly polished black marble, with two strong legs that spanned its length and left a hole through which Topa and I could sneak or hide. Each of the sofas bore two square pillows – one white and one black – save for the two at the ends, placed perpendicularly compared to the others and forming the parallel sides of the half-square, which had brown and yellow pillows. Facing these seats was a large cupboard spanning most of the wall, from the corner to the door, and comprised of countless doors and drawers that surrounded a large open area in its centre, occupied by an oversized television that was currently turned off. To its right, embedded in the wall against which it rested, a delicately ornate fireplace of grey marble blended into the wall surrounding it, popping out of it slightly as its top was being used as a makeshift shelf that bore Agnes's precious gem collection. On the other side, several smaller arrangements of seats surrounded smaller tables, except for a large table on the opposite side of the door compared in relation to the television. The grey walls and wooden floor were not decorated, and a bay window protected by rolling steel shutters by the dining table replaced the fourth wall facing the door.
Topa stood by the low table, one of the yellow pillows laid on the floor in front of her.
"Let us try again today," she said. "Remember: you must surround the object with your power, lest you lose control of it."
I nodded and focused. As before, my vision turned to a light blue colour, and I projected my energy onto the pillow. I didn't accidentally fling it away from pushing it with too much energy this time, but was still unable to surround it properly, and instead of throwing it across the room, I flipped it back to its place on the sofas.
Topa observed its trajectory with an amused giggle. "You are making progress. Try moving your energy around it earlier, then closing it in. Keep trying, I think you will figure it out soon."
Such had our routine been for almost a week. When Agnes was showering, or when she was sleeping – as she often did, for she needed copious amounts of rest – Topa and I withdrew to the living room in silence and the ninetales did her best to continue where Pride had left off so that I could learn telekinesis. I had not made as much progress as I would have expected, and was still struggling to seize objects with my power, but the ninetales had, as usual, shown herself to be a far better and far more patient teacher than Pride. I was doing my best to learn, but the shadow of my failure to protect my trainer loomed over me, and every effort I made was tainted with the fear that I would once again prove myself to be unworthy of her.
When Agnes walked out, supported by both Rakuen and the nurse, she was panting, and shimmering strips fell from her eyes to illuminate her cheeks when exposed to the strong lights of the ceiling. Save for the enormous bandage covering her entire abdomen and her compression stockings, she was naked, and her hair was still wet.
Rakuen hurried to the sofas, pushing the pillows away to make room, and covered the area she had created with clean towels on which Agnes was laid. The nurse then proceeded to change her bandage while Topa and I kept ourselves at a respectful distance in order not to risk leaving any fur on Agnes's sensitive wound.
"You should probably get some rest on weekends," the nurse said. "You shouldn't be this tired, even after a wound like this. Have you been overexerting yourself?"
"No," Agnes said, panting. She wiped the remnants of her tears from her cheeks. "Just the exercice the physiotherapist gave me. Some walking around the flat."
"No playing with your pokemon?"
"No, not yet."
The nurse frowned and remained silent. As she turned around to shove the dirty dressing in a bag, Agnes ruefully seized her arm.
"What does it mean?" she asked. "Why the face?"
"Everybody heals differently," the nurse replied after a delay. "Sometimes, people in perfect health don't recover well from a wound that others who are not as healthy recover from easily."
"What does it mean?" Agnes repeated in a pressing tone.
The nurse looked at her, then at her stomach, and away. "Your struggling to move now, and your general exhaustion even with idle tasks like a shower, indicate you likely won't recover well from this. You will be able to walk, but I don't think you will be able to do any form of strenuous activities anymore. That includes your police work."
Agnes's face deflated as reality dawned on her. Still clenching on the nurse's sleeve, she slowly moved her eyes down, then from left to right, her mouth slightly ajar. She peered at her legs extended on the sofa, then away again.
"No," she whispered. "I won't let that happen."
"Miss, please let go of my sleeve."
Agnes released her grip of the nurse's clothing with an apology.
"Take what I say with a grain of salt," the health professional said. "I'm just a nurse, and it is too early to tell. I would still advise you take some rest at least this weekend so that you don't end up damaging yourself further. Please bring this up with your physiotherapist when you see them next."
"I will. Thank you. I'm sorry I grabbed you."
The nurse gathered her belongings, wished Rakuen and Agnes a good weekend, and hurried out of the room. As the maid dried my human's hair and eventually helped her put some clothes on – in the form of a simple summer dress – I continued Topa's exercises until Agnes asked me for my attention. Topa and I both walked to her, but while I jumped on the sofa to lay on my trainer's chest again, Topa sat on the floor.
"I've been thinking about battles," she said. "There are many moves I want you to learn but I don't want to overwhelm you, so I've made myself a priority list. The most important move I think you need to learn is Flamethrower, but that one shouldn't be much of a problem, right?" I nodded with a confident bark. "With that, you'll have great offensive options together with Flame Charge, so fire-type is covered. So, looking into other types, I'll need you to learn Confuse Ray as soon as possible, as well as Quick Attack to move quickly, and Extrasensory to fight opponents against which fire is weak. Topa knows all these moves, so she can teach you. Do you think you can do that for me?"
I barked again. Flamethrower wouldn't be an issue at all – it was probably just a sustained Ember – and Extrasensory would be easy once I figured out telekinesis, but Confuse Ray might prove to be a problem, especially if I had as much trouble creating Dark energy as I had learning to create Psychic energy.
"Now, there are a few other moves I want you to learn that Topa does not know. Energy Ball is the most important – since it's a Grass type, it will enable you to fight all opponents who have a type advantage over you. I also want you to learn Dig and Iron Tail to have a few more offensive moves in reserve, and Disable to have some control over your opponent. Then, the last difficult bit will be fighting Dragon type pokemon. It's unlikely, but not impossible. The only move I can think of that you could learn is Draining Kiss, but I can't think of anybody who could have that, so I have no idea where you could learn it. Extrasensory will do, I guess, even though it's a neutral one."
She marked a pause and moved her loving gaze towards me. I stared back, but remained silent.
"So, in short, I want you to learn Flamethrower, Confuse Ray, Quick Attack, and Extrasensory as soon as possible. Then I'll have you trained with Energy Ball, Dig, Iron Tail, and finally Disable. Is that okay? Am I asking too much?"
I nodded in response to her first question, then quickly yelped inquisitively and shook my head.
"Wonderful! Topa can teach you most of them already. Pico knows Dig and Iron Tail. I'll have to look into it to find someone who can teach you Energy Ball and Disable, there are probably a few of my classmates who could help. That can wait, though, and" – she gestured towards her legs – "it will have to. Focus on the ones Topa can teach you while we're stuck here, okay?"
I nodded again. By the sofa, Topa peered at me with an excited smile and wagging tails, and I returned the grin.
"We have much to look forward to," she said. "Since you will be learning new moves, I think now would be the right time to teach you Will-O-Wisp as well. It will be a pleasant surprise for Agnes."
My tails began wagging with force. "Really?" I shouted.
"Of course," she said, her smile widening. "It should not be too difficult now that you have started using basic telekinesis. Flamethrower will probably only take you a few hours to learn – it took me about a day when my mother taught me. Confuse Ray will be the more difficult one, for it requires a type of energy you do not yet know how to conjure, and Quick Attack should be somewhere in the middle."
"When are we starting?"
Topa remained silent for a second. "I would suggest we start next Monday, and take this chance to rest with Agnes. You did not rest much while with that vaporeon, did you?"
"I left a week ago, I'm okay. I want to start learning now!"
"Be patient," the ninetales said with an amused giggle. "Next Monday."
I let out an annoyed grunt, but acquiesced with a short nod. Agnes was stuck home for the next few months. There would be plenty of time for me to learn new moves.
And plenty of time to enjoy her survival.