Chương 16: 16-Puzzle

"Top three differences in blood makeup between common grass and normal types?" Hemoglobin is cut with Leghemoglobin-like proteins, 6-8% elevated nitrogen content, drastically reduced carbon dioxide content. Tanya presses her foot against the second option and Amelia nods.

"Good." She slaps the card down in the 'correct' pile and continues.

"Unique characteristics of grass type Pulmonary Function Tests?" Extremely low tidal volume in spirometry and capnometer reading between 2-5 mmHg. Tanya taps the correct answer again. The card goes to the 'correct' pile.

"What's the difference in Metabolic Range Variance between rock and fighting types?" Tanya blinks, suddenly feeling as if she'd miscounted the stairs in the dark and stepped into open air. Because that question doesn't make any sense. Fighting types are just normal types with everything turned up to eleven. But rock types, while similar in many ways, use silicon alongside carbon in many key metabolic functions. Meaning the root processes are so different that even trying to compare them is… Oh.

It's a trick question, there's no answer. Stepping back from the answer mat on the floor and ignoring the multiple choice answers written on the back of the card, Tanya raises an eyebrow at her partner. Amelia looks back with barely masked glee, mirroring the eyebrow.

"What's wrong? Don't know?" Tanya snorts.

"Very funny." She'd almost fallen for that one. Seeing her scheme has been revealed, Ameala grins and flips the card around, revealing a winking smiley face where the correct answer should be before setting the card aside.

"And you're done!" Picking up the rest of the cards, she puts them all together and places them in front of Tanya.

"Alright, shuffle them and quiz me back. But I need you to change the deck slightly." Reaching into her bag, the human pulls out another deck of notecards and removes the rubber band before placing it next to the first.

"I want you to use your telekinesis to remove all multiple choice questions from these two decks except for the ones marked with a red dot in the top left corner of both decks." She lifts a card and taps the red spot with her finger.

"With the marked cards I want you to remove every other card from the combined pile then layer them with no less than two but no more than five unmarked cards between each." Tanya nods and begins wrapping the two piles in psychic mana but Amelia puts her hand on the two piles as they start to lift.

"Upupup! Not yet!" She lifts her hand and pulls the top card from the new deck.

"I've also marked the prime numbered cards of this pile in invisible ink. After they're shuffled no two marked primes may be layered consecutively, forward or backward. Got that?" Tanya takes a few seconds to process the input, breaking the rules down in her head looking for a method to simplify the computationally intense sorting algorithm her partner just laid out. But every method falls apart with the restrictions presented. The 'mon smiles as her eyes close and dart around in thought.

She's not sure exactly why Amelia decided she needed to give her these puzzles, current working theory is that it stems from being behind academically and her not wanting to waste Tanya's time. But whatever the reason, the problems are welcome. They're fascinating. Opening her eyes, Tanya gives an impressed nod as each card is individually gripped in psychic mana and gently lifts into the air.

"Tricky, good job with this one." she says before the two decks expand in the air like an accordion and she gets to work.

"How do you plan on checking my work?" This is far past Amelia's relative ability in mathematical and inductive reasoning. The human grins then waves off the question.

"Oh, I just modified a training tool for psychic 'mon a little bit. It's… er… NP-complete?" She half asks, blinking as she tries to remember.

"Whatever, it's supposed to be hard, but I already know the correct order" Nodding, Tanya turns her full attention to the floating cards in front of her as she removes the last of the multiple choice cards that are neither prime nor marked. After another second, she pulls out an edge case and looks up to her partner.

"Do I keep prime multiple choice cards from the second pile that aren't marked?" Amelia says nothing, instead leaning back in her chair and steepling her fingers with a raised eyebrow. Tanya holds her gaze for a moment longer before setting the card aside with a mental grumble. That just made the problem about twice as hard. Getting to work, the cards shuffle and group mid air, flipping and turning as they slide out of the stack and reinsert in another position.

Paired off into like categories to create new laws emergent from the board state. But as seconds turn into minutes Tanya can feel her psychic mana straining and a developing headache as the problem continues to resist. A few more seconds and a card flickers in her grip before she grunts and clamps back down. But just as she's pushed to the breaking point, two more inferred rules combine in her mind and the several million possible configurations collapse into several hundred.

From there it's easy to sort the possible solves by similarity to the previous board state and brute force the solution. It takes another ten seconds to hit upon something that works. Panting, Tanya hurriedly collapses the floating accordion of cards and wipes her brow as she withdraws her wavering grip. Amelia raps her knuckles against the table.

"Taking a break?" Tanya shakes her head between heavy breaths.

"No…" She pauses to breathe.

"It's done." Blinking, her partner grabs the cards –still giving off light wisps of psychic mana– and flares them across the table like playing cards before flicking on a handheld UV light. Scanning across the top left corner of every card, Tanya can see the light revealing fluorescent numbers ascending across the row. But, about halfway though, they find a card out of sequence and Amelia slides it halfway out of line, then does the same with one other.

"Well… It's not right." She says, tapping one of the incorrect cards.

"Good news, you must have just swapped them in your head, the rest of it would have been messed up any other way." Tanya stares at the cards for a second before closing her eyes and letting out a disappointed groan. So close, all to fumble it on such a simple step. Next time. Seeing Tanya doesn't want to comment on her poor showing, Amelia stacks the cards back up again and hums consideringly.

"You know… I could show you the website I found the problem on, it walks you through the solution." She says, half waving at an unoccupied computer. Glancing at the inactive terminal, Tanya can admit to herself she does want to see if there's an easier solution than the half brute force she made up, but to switch now would be wasting their rather scarce time together with something she could just look up herself. Releasing a quiet sigh, Tanya gets up and takes a step toward the cards to begin quizzing her partner.

"No. I feel the time could be better spent doing what we'd scheduled beforehand." Amelia nods and rises from her chair with a grin.

"I thought you'd like the idea! We'll have to be quick though, I don't want to get too far off schedule." Tanya blinks, then sputters out several half answers at her partner's retreating back. This language! There is something magical going on here, that much is clear, but for some reason the communication seems to cut in and out at random!

Just a few days ago they had a half hour conversation on common training injuries sustained by different types of 'mon with total clarity, then the conversation just crashed into intelligibility between one word and the next. Tanya stares down at the cards. There has to be a pattern, but it's proving devilishly difficult to find. She's brought out of her musing at Amelia's return, twirling one of the computer access keys on a finger.

Glancing off the side of the desk as her partner walks past, Tanya hops down to the floor and grunts as her mana struggles to shield the impact. Using psychic is always more draining than using her native magic, –or aura as the locals call it– and that puzzle pushed her to the absolute limit. Exhaustion continues to be a problem as she makes it to the computer desk and looks up as she gauges the distance to the countertop a little more than twice her height.

Eventually concluding she doesn't have enough energy to make the jump. Unfortunately, while she was trying to figure out how to close the distance, Tanya squeaks in surprise as she's picked up by Amelia and placed on the desk with a strained groan. The child continues to have unbroken hands only by the former soldier's monumental self control as she turns with a glare. Amelia pretends to not notice Tanya's ire as she turns the key and opens up a web browser.

The search engine loads in but a news article about the upcoming league circuit along the bottom banner causes Amelia to pause.

"Oh. Almost forgot. Mom got us tickets for the exhibition gym match in Mauville. I can bring a pokemon size class M or below as a plus one, you wanna come with?" Tanya holds her glare for another second before dropping it with a nod and taking a step closer to the PC. The idea of leaving the hospital at all seems interesting, heading to the largest city in the country to interact with the absurdity of their government only makes the offer more enticing.

"I'd love to. Thank you for inviting me." She says seriously. Amelia returns a professional nod, not looking at her partner as she taps out the address.

"Ok. We'll walk through the problem together, if it takes any longer than ten minutes I'll just print out the page. Then we can get back to what we're supposed to. Got it?" Tanya gives an affirming hum as she sits down beside her partner, pressing lightly against her elbow to get a better view of the screen. In and out. Easy. —--"There! See!"

Amelia shouts, jabbing her finger at a paused video of two lucario fighting each other, the screen paused at the point of impact where a high kick passed clean though the orrean regional variant's guard. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Why, in the heck, isn't he blocking there?" Tanya taps the keyboard a few times to go back a few frames and jesures at the incoherent blur.

"I'm telling you he had to have done something here to either knock the guard or feint a lower kick." Amelia scoffs.

"Oh come on! We both can see the yellow one isn't using his legs as well, and those blows he took to the shoulder in the second exchange? It's all damage conservation." Tanya rolls her eyes.

"So you're saying the solution is to just… not get hit? Genius, why didn't he think of that?" Amelia pokes her partner with a growl.

"I'm not saying he could have done anything about it! But if his shoulders were tired out in such a short fight and just a few hits it's an area of improvement!" Tanya turns fully away from the screen to face the human.

"And you're moving goalposts. If you'll remember, the question was the tactical explanation for why he lost!"

"A-Am not!" Tanya grabs the mouse and drags the video player to the start of the fight.

"We're not doing that again. Just… let's start from the beginning, work our way through the fight, and we'll both watch for where hits land and what damage seems to be hindering either party in future exchanges." Amelia opens her mouth to continue the debate, but closes it again with a nod and presses the spacebar to start the fight from the top.

It's about halfway through the video that the door to the library slams open, making Tanya jerk her head away from the screen and to an out of breath Caretaker who's looking back with a slightly manic smile and waving a manila folder.

"It's here!" … It's here? Tanya blinks, then leaps to her feet! It's here! Flinging herself off the desk she rushes across the room, straining to compress her bulk to duck and weave through the few obstacles in her way as Caretaker –being larger– has to pick around the desks and shelves more slowly. Even still, they both skid to a stop a short distance from the door in just under five seconds.

Staring up at an exhausted looking Caretaker, Tanya has to force herself to give the courtesy of a few seconds for her to catch her breath before holding out her arm.

"Show me." Caretaker nods and slowly starts to hand over the file, prompting Tanya to jump the spot and snatch the paper midair to speed up Caretaker's painfully slow pace. Papers in hand, she flips open the file and starts reading before she's even hit the ground.

Eyes scanning across the cover page, she sees the now familiar logo of and the PMDA acronym emblazoned across the top, the regulatory agency that stands as the last hurdle to the success of the business Caretaker's invested in as her portfolio's core holding. Skipping through jargon describing what the report is describing in exact legal detail, Tanya's search comes to a stop at the words she's been hoping for.

"With the conclusions outlined further in this report, the PMDA and all parties associated have found both high societal value and low risk to the mass production of 'EmTuim' and all ancillary subproducts as outlined in section 4. 22…"

"... As such this panel hereby licenses the above as medicine as prescriptive for human and pokemon use." Tanya stops as it continues with legal jargon and reads the words over again. Then again. The one more time before closing the file and looking up at Caretaker who's smiling wide enough it has to hurt, joyful tears in her eyes. She smiles back.

"Well congratulations, this is an ex– hrg!" Tanya's cut off as the world goes dark and Caretaker seems to be trying to crush her charge with the strength of her hug. Made only worse when the former soldier finds herself lifted and twirled off the ground. An unknown amount of time later, after she's released, Tanya looks up at Caretaker's sheepish grin with a resigned expression.

But just before she's put back down and the embrace ends, the obligation of the social contract makes itself known, louder than ever before. Tanya hesitates for a moment longer, then sighs as her feet touch the ground. Well… if not now, then when? That thought in mind, she awkwardly lifts her arms and returns the hug, lightly pressing in a pale imitation of the affection she'd just received.

Just as quickly, awkwardness overrides her social consciousness and Tanya releases her grip, then hurries on to the next topic with a cough." Ahm- So! How's the stock value?" Caretaker takes a second to respond as she powers through an entire gallery of emotions to force her train of thought onto the topic of economics while Tanya steps back to a socially acceptable distance.

"Well it sextoupled in the first nine hours!" Tanya blinks, opens her mouth, closes it, then blinks a few more times as she tilts her head. What?

"How is that possible? That's… double the upper bound?" That shouldn't have happened. Caretaker shrugs.

"No idea. But it's trending to top out at seven. I've already emailed my broker to sell before whatever this bubble is deflates." Tanya nods, then does some mental math.

"Well, more for you I guess. Close to three million dollars, congratulations." Thirty thousand american, easily one of the biggest single trades Tanya had ever been a part of. Caretaker gives a nervous laugh, looking away and scratching the back of her head. Tanya's expression hardens.

"What is it?" Caretaker's laugh becomes even more fake somehow.

"Welllll… You know how I've been making good returns on some smaller trades and told you I was going to reinvest it back into the portfolio? Well. The spread of the investment was a little… skewed." Tanya sighs and rubs the spot between her eyes. Why is Caretaker's risk tolerance so high?! She'd walked the Chansey through the probable revenue spreads herself! There's no logical reason for Caretaker to give her such a migraine by doing risky stuff like this! She sighs. Whatever. It worked this time.

Hopefully when the risk does catch up to her she'll still have something at the end of it. The former soldier makes herself take a deep breath and open her eyes, catching sight of Amelia's confused expression from her spot at a nearby table, having moved from the computer terminal across the room. Who Tanya had just been very rude to. But as she turns to apologize to her partner, the human looks at something on the far wall and jumps out of her chair with a yelp.

"Holy crap! When'd it get so late?! Mom's definitely waiting for me!" She sprints toward the door, but pauses just before she runs out to look back at Tanya.

"PleaseReturnTheKeyI'veGotToRunHaveANiceDay Bye!" Tanya blinks a few times, before turning to Caretaker, an arm over her mouth to stop her giggles.

"Did you catch that?" This, for some reason, finally makes Caretaker break. Bursting into a fit of laughter for a few seconds before pulling herself together enough to answer the question.

"n-No. But I think she'd just noticed the time." She says, indicating the clock. Glancing up Tanya looks at the offending obje– When did it get so late!? She was supposed to get back to the nursery almost half an hour ago! Caretaker chimes in through her charge's shock.

"I'd planned on showing the report to you when you got back but you stayed over and I just couldn't wai–" She's cut off as Tanya grabs her arm and starts dragging them both toward home.

"We'll continue this conversation at the nursery." She says, powering through the sudden feeling of wrongness at not being where she's supposed to as she urges her body to move faster. Today has just been full of surprises! —-- –_– —-- Watching the regular playground fight, Boss wiggles against the bark of her tree and twirls a piece of grass between two arms as Big Sis fights six 'mon at the same time.

Turning what should be an overwhelming strength in numbers against them as she leverages her bulk to allow greater mobility by ignoring attacks that any other 'mon would be forced to avoid. Breaking through attempts to trap her and combine their strengths with maneuver alone. This is despite being slower than almost everyone on the field.

But as one Treecko is sent flying out of the arena, only to be tagged in by another, Assistant, two centimeters taller and half a shade more pink, appears at her side and leans in, murmuring her report. Mind already spinning up plans with the good news, the most managerial of siblings gives a single nod and responds in a hushed whisper.

"Good, may I see it?" Assistant nods and pulls a piece of paper out her pouch, opening it up, Happiny scans over the blue and red crayon in a blink then hands it back.

"Could you tell the others we're going to the secret base tonight?" She says, waving an arm as if to outline their constructed hiding spot of blankets and pillows with a hollow space underneath.

"We've got to memorize the route." Her sister proves to be an excellent pick for the job as she nods without another word and leaves just as quickly as she arrived. Turning back to the battle, Happiny watches Big Sis fight as if she's invincible against the endless number against her. Somehow ducking and weaving her significantly larger form though the crowd of attackers like nothing they can do could touch her. But the strikes are wearing her sister down.

Happiny winces as a drain punch lands and Big Sis gives back just as good as she got, then moves a little slower afterward. She needs to help. The searingly white light of potential flickers deep inside. Happiny closes her eyes and takes a breath. No. Not like that. Other Chansey can do the healing. Only she can do this. Just a few more days. Just a little more preparation. And she'll be able to give Big Sis the best gift she could possibly ask for.