Chương 6: 6-Meet

In the darkened nursery, Tanya sits alone as the only conscious creature remaining in the nearly silent room. The soft snores and dreaming chirrups of her sisters as they nap a perpetual backdrop as she calls on her magic again. Even now, without even a single real spell, the mana has proven to be invaluable. The magic seems to do things natively that would take formulas complicated enough to require an orb back in Germania.

Things like increasing her strength and durability with an action no more complicated than moving the mana though her to the point she wants improved. But it's not enough. Tanya pulls the mana to her mind and tries to press the simplest magic formula inside, but it fails to catch, repelling her attempted imposition. Stabilizing control, Tanya tries again, but as she does, a whimper has her gaze snap to the nap pile. Normally, she'd be hard pressed to avoid the pile, but after today…

She stares at the sleeping face of her most managerial sister in the center, her lips twitching downward as dreams turn sour. But then, as if by magic, the entire pile pipes up with sleeping chirps and her sister's forming frown disappears. When they'd gotten back to the nursery, she'd stuck to Tanya like a limpet, leaning against her for support as every sister crowded around them in a mob of compassion, shoving every toy and treat they could get their hands on to her until she was nearly buried underneath it all.

Then, after the post-yard snack, they all formed up around her and pressed in until she'd fallen asleep. Everyone but Tanya. She tries again, the equation bounces off and she has to concentrate to keep her hold on the mana. Control of this strange ethereal version of magic is… different. Not unmanageable, at times it's even easier than her old magic in fact, even after years of practice in her old world. The only issue is that it seems to be related partially to her emotional state, among other unknown factors.

As an example, when she'd been… correcting the mudkip, her magic flowed more freely than even when she was using the type 95. Another wave of soothing chirps from the nap pile has her control waver for a moment as Tanya looks over again seeing nothing out of the ordinary, not even a frown from the sister who'd been attacked. She takes a breath, but doesnt look away again. Everything's alright. She'd thought her sisters would grow out of their more softhearted – naive – tendencies.

But the more she speaks with Caretaker and the other chansey, the more she realizes something horrifying. The eternal patience, kindness, lov- Care? None of it's an act. They're not putting on a mask for the benefit of their charges. That's how they are all the time, and when her sisters grow up to Chansey they're going to stay just like they are now. When they find partners and go off to schooling then into the workforce, far away from Tanya, they're going to be just like this.

She refocuses, pressing the magic formula into her mana less carefully in her haste, destabilizing her control and causing the magic to slip between her mental fingers like water. Glaring at the mana, she starts to curse Being X for the indignity. Before she pauses. Because she can't remember the last time she'd thought about that false god, the realization alone causing a frisson of worry.

She'd not thought him capable of subtlety, yet in this life he's clearly proven himself capable of being discreet, considering Tanya's seen nothing she would attribute to his influence. No talk of war, no stormcloud on the horizon to destroy the peaceful life she's headed towards. Far away from anything to tempt her to offer earnest worship. Which is… worrying. Because lack of any clear signs of his influence only means she cant see which direction it will come from. He wouldn't just let her go.

Tanya knows that much, even if she knows nothing else. That… thing will never let her go. Shaking her head, she draws more mana from her pool and returns to training with new vigor. This new intensity formed from simple, straightforward, logic. If she can learn something like this, with just a few weeks of practice, then other, smarter, professionals will be able to do even more.

Pulling the magic back up to her mind, Tanya takes the simplest of magic formulas, a training equation for cadets back at the Academy before they were trusted not to melt an orb. Her mind flashes across memories of the trenches of the western front, of the mud and craters stretching out to the horizon and beyond. She sees her sisters in those trenches, standing on a firing step to avoid sinking too deep into the mud, or tending to a screaming soon to be corpse in one of the forward medic tents.

Sitting well within artillery range. Such images would be comical if not for the stomach dropping feeling of horror. Tanya closes her eyes to dispel the visions. She'd called in artillery strikes on those tents once upon a time, never on purpose, but… … She already considered trying to train them, mold them into something strong enough to survive the world outside, like she'd done for her 203rd.

More images, her sister crying in the cold of the alps, Tanya – human – standing above and adjusting a glove, having just punished Happiny for her cowardice, having just slapped- The former soldier squeezes her eyes and shakes her head, taking a shuddering breath. … She'll figure it out. Tanya iterates the training equation a few times without magic, preloading values to focus on the mana side without distraction. She'll do this and prove the defensive slog of her past life is impossible.

Shoving the formula into the mana it, as always, starts to slide off. Until she grips it harder and forces them to interact, demanding what is hers to obey. She'll grow strong enough to punch through any trench, no matter how well dug in. She'll ensure that terrible method of war is obsolete. Even if she has to do it herself. And the mana listens. Magic twists, changing from its strange ambiguous potential to something different, something new.

The colorless grey shifting to a fluorescent purple, incorporating the formula into itself and taking on its aspects; of thought, will, intelligence. A wind suddenly appears with Tanya at the epicenter. Eyes snapping open, she sees dust and small objects are pushed, if only a few centimeters, away from her in all directions. She looks around, baffled. The formula was supposed to create a small light in front of her face, not… whatever that was.

Even if she'd completely messed up the equations that shouldn't have been possible. Staring down at the tiny wisps of purple energy still floating off her left arm, she waves her other limb through the intangible power. What just happened? —-- –_– —-- The caretakers are planning something, and whatever it is they're keeping it secret. Tanya figured out pretty quickly that they're planning something, but even her most subtle investigations have turned up nothing but excited giggles and coy looks.

They're not very good at opsec, but they're immune to all methods of interrogation she currently has at her disposal. Even Caretaker is being abnormally tight-lipped, offering just a headpat and secretive smile to Tanya's questions; accompanied by a 'You'll find out soon, promise.' But, after over a week of anticipation, this morning the strange behavior has reached its peak. The weirdness started the instant the day did, with the Chansey in a yellow cap entering first and flipping on the lights instead of Matron.

Then breakfast was served by Caretaker! It's gotten bad enough that even her sisters noticed something's up. Everything else could be explained away or dismissed. Matron not serving breakfast is impossible to ignore. A few minutes after everyone's meal is served, and the food is put away a bit earlier than normal, Matron enters the room already accompanied by her partner.

As soon as the door closes every Chansey in the room tries to casually make their way towards the two, trading knowing glances and shushed giggles. Tanya takes another crunch of an overfull bowl of pokechow, watching her caretakers struggle to contain their excitement. After they all gather near the door, Tanya observes as they slowly lose their composure while breakfast continues. Matron is the worst offender, alternating between hopping foot to foot and opening her mouth to say something before catching herself.

Whatever this is, it's gotten them excited. After a few more minutes, the instant the last kibble is consumed, Matron bounds up to the front of her group, almost vibrating with anticipation.

"Alright everyone! I've got a surprise!" She cheers, waving her arms in wild excited circles. Matron hops from foot to foot, apparently too excited for words. Tanya mentally nods as her sisters look up from their empty bowls inquisitively.

"Well I- We- You've all gotten so big and-!" She starts, tripping over her words before Nurse Zoe reaches down and rests a hand on her head. At the grounding touch, Matron closes her eyes and takes a breath before looking up at the human.

"Thank you." She says more calmly, before turning back to the crowd of increasingly confused happiny. After another breath, she crunches inward as if charging up whatever she's going to say next before she explodes out, jumping up with a shout!

"We're going to meet potential partners today!" She cheers, and at her words both her group of chansey and the happiny break out into ecstatic babbling. Tanya isn't among them, instead she slowly follows behind the stampede of sisters rushing towards the door and the caretakers struggling to get order, considering. A 'partner,' as she's come to understand the role, is an unfortunate necessity if she plans on entering the workforce through the pipeline she's currently on.

Considering the Joy family has a near total monopoly on pokemon medical care. Also the partner is required to function with the reality of their language barrier. As… abnormal and one directional as the barrier happens to be. With some discrete testing Tanya's found she can speak Japanese, even write it with some added difficulty. She can still understand both just fine, but for some reason whenever she tries to express herself, something inside struggles against a kind of mental barrier.

With training and a few months she has no doubt she'd be fluent in Japanese once more, but the question of whether that's a good idea forced a pause. Being able to speak 'human' is distinctly abnormal according to Caretaker, and the former soldier has no small amount of experience from her past life on all the troubles being an edge case can cause.

If it turns out to be necessary there's nothing stopping her from following through and setting out on her own, but for now it seems like a waste of effort before she's explored her options. Her siblings have none of her hesitation, to them finding a partner is just the potential for a 'best friend for life.' Tanya's got to hand it to the caretakers, they know their audience, but the former soldier has some reservations about the entire process.

Stepping out of the nursery, Tanya finds the building a hub of activity with nurses rushing about in every direction, pushing carts and hurriedly talking to one another or, for those with a few more pins on their uniforms, into walkie-talkies. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As her group navigates the ordered chaos, her mind drifts back to the nursery as a wavering line of excited sisters make their way out into the hall towards wherever the potential partners are. Partners who, –according to Caretaker– once they find a Happiny willing to work with them are headed off to the Acad- She cuts herself off with a breath. Nursing school. They're headed off to nursing school. Where her sisters will live and learn with their new partners, then go off to pokecenters all across the country.

Hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other. She stares at her siblings as they 'play' follow the leader, anticipatory energy making their paths wobble with excitement. She wonders if they understand the consequences of finding a partner. Of- Tanya blinks, mind stuttering. Of losing their financial freedom. Despite Caretaker's assurances and explanations on the many laws and precedents protecting her from a partner abusing what could be a fundamentally unequal relationship, some part of her is still…

anxious. There is precedent to a contract being formed between 'mon and partner, and thankfully income is still a-ways away so the contract can hold off until they're actually employed. But anxieties aren't helped by the fact that apparently pokecenters are funded by government subsidies and charitable donations. Which doesn't seem very stable. But… Her train of thought is interrupted as they arrive, stepping into a large room separated into two floors.

The bottom floor is mostly like the nursery, with the addition of a few large bean bags and a few more human sized objects scattered around, on the left there's a staircase up to an overlook with chairs and tables in a more reserved style. High up on the left wall there's a row of windows letting in sunlight illuminating the room even brighter than the soft incandescent bulbs similar to those in the nursery, contrasting the fluorescents in the hallway and the more human focused rooms.

As the door closes Matron turns around and, waving her arms she herds everyone into a line by the side of the entrance.

"Ok! We're early…" She mutters anxiously before continuing, louder.

"Alright everyone! Best behavior please! And please stay right here until I tell you it's time to go!" Every happiny nods seriously, straightening up as they hear the importance of the order. Almost as soon as all the happiny are in a line, the door opens and in walks a crowd of pink haired humans of assorted ages. Tanya blinks as she notes none of them are wearing a uniform, even the adults. Then stares as she notices a few adults without pink hair, and are male. What?

Eventually, after a minute of silent observation, she's forced to conclude they're the parents of the younger members in the crowd as they line up the potential partners on the opposite side of the room. This new information is making the former soldier seriously reconsider her quiet assumption all the nurses were clones. Glancing around on her side of the room, she notes only a few of her sisters stepped away from their spots, but all stopped themselves from rushing across the space.

An act that seems to be extremely difficult considering their nearly vibrating body language. Then, two more people enter at the tail end of the human group, and when they step into view every back straightens as every eye turns to them. The taller of the duo is a human nurse, with grey streaked hair and a wooden cane she barely seems to use. Forgoing the normal skirt she wears dress pants in appropriate colors and a more suit-like cut to the uniform's normal top.

Accompanying her is the largest Chansey Tanya's ever seen, with white coloration on her lower half and what looks like white frills naturally forming from her body creating a skirt and ruffles. But the white doesn't stop at her bottom half, as even her pink upper half has a silver speckled tinge. They both assess the room with an identical sweeping gaze before the human remains with the un-uniformed nurses and the strange Chansey splits off, walking towards them.

As she approaches, Matron steps up without any unnecessary movements and straight posture, face unusually serious"Are the hatchlings ready?" Asks the older 'mon in a no nonsense tone.

"Yes Head Nurse Blissey." Matron responds with a respectful nod. Returning the nod, she turns her gaze downwards, raking her eyes across Tanya's sisters with a considering gaze like she's assessing each of them in turn. Like a drill inst- Binking, Tanya realizes she'd moved, stepping in front of those further down the line behind her. Blissey looks at her, and for a single instant Tanya feels like she's back above Francois airspace, staring down a battalion of mages tripple her number. She doesn't flinch.

Blissey pauses, then looks at Matron with a neutral expression.

"Good." She says with another nod, before turning back and speaking to the happiny.

"As this is the first time you've done this I will tell you the rules." She starts, eyes flitting across the line.

"I do not appreciate repeating myself, so I must ask that you listen carefully." Everyone nods their head, including the caretakers, who Tanya has to assume have done this before.

"When I say to do so, you will go across the room and meet your potential partners, I will not tolerate arguing or shoving if a human is choosing to speak to someone else." She says, pauses to ensure everyone understands, then continues.

"Furthermore, I do not tolerate whining or tantrums. If you are not chosen I trust you will congratulate your sister's who were and I promise you will all find a partner, even if it's not today." There's another pause.

"Any questions?" Blissey asks. Silence, and some gently shuffling of feet. She nods.

"Good." Glancing back to her partner on the other side there is no obvious sign of communication as their eyes lock, but after a moment Blissey steps back and gestures for them to move forward at the exact same time as the human opposite her. At some point all the parents made their way up the stairs and to the seating overlooking the scene below, leaving eight children aged somewhere between eleven and fourteen.

Both groups rush towards each other, though the longer legs on the human side means the happiny don't get far before they're swarming around the children. Tanya hangs back, watching as her twenty six sisters totter around the significantly smaller number of potential partners. Scrambling and calling out to make a good first impression on these new girls. A lot of them are offering handshakes. As Tanya watches on, she scans over each of them as if trying to figure out which one of her siblings will be chosen.

And leave. Eight siblings, gone. Nodding to herself, Tanya looks over the humans with a judging eye. None of them seem particularly notable compared to every other child she's ever met, and the idea of latching herself to a child is already bad enough, the thought of becoming partners with an unimpressive child is just a bad deal. She'll sit this one out, perhaps when most of her… Tanya blinks a few times, then looks away. Perhaps when the ratio of humans to happiny is more favorable she'll put her hat in the ring.

Having looked away from the meeting, she catches sight of Blissey looking up to her partner and gesturing vaguely towards her group, after another moment of looking at each other with no obvious communication she glances towards Matron and waves her over. Looking back at the potential partners, Tanya realizes her sisters have managed to separate and herd the humans to the bean bags and sit them down.

Upon forcing them to the ground they capitalize on their target's weak relative position and quickly work to a pin, first climbing both the bean bag and their legs, then standing on their laps and chests. Tanya approves, the efficiency of the maneuver has completely incapacitated each of them in under a minute. The humans don't look too upset about the situation either, perhaps a bit overwhelmed, but not unhappy.

One of the humans pick up a sister, Happiny, seventeen centimeters shorter and half a shade less saturated. She giggles as she's held. A few days ago, she sat next to Tanya at lunch and offered her food after Tanya'd finished her own. Their eyes lock, and the former soldier can see something appear between them. And she hates it- Tanya's head snaps around behind her, arm coming up to block the… It's Matron, tapping her from behind.

"Yes?" Tanya asks, voice level. Matron pauses for a fraction of a second before she gives a commiserating smile.

"Big day huh?" She asks, leaning down. Tanya nods emphatically.

"An important day." She agrees. Matron nods, smile widening.

"Sure is! But did you know there's actually nine potential partners here?" She says, almost whispering the words like it's some grand secret. Tanya blinks, scanning over the area and seeing just the eight, before Matron points up the staircase to the second level.

"She's being sneaky. So she's hiding up there." Tanya looks around and, sure enough, among the parents there's another human around the same age as the ones down below. She's looking out the window with an expression on her face Tanya cant get quite a read on. But… Matron pats her on the back, pulling Tanya from her narrowing focus.

"How about this?" She offers with a softening smile.

"I'll stay right here and keep an eye on everyone so you can go say hello!" Tanya looks between her sisters and the lone figure high above as Matron continues gently.

"She looks like she needs a friend." She says. Tanya considers her words, almost dismissing them out of hand. She doesnt know this child, she's under no obligation nor has the incentive to navigate those stairs to bother someone who's clearly chosen to go somewhere to not be bothered. But as she stares at that profile of a face cast in the midday sun, at that expression. Something deep inside… …

Approaching the bottom of the stairs, Tanya sets down a plastic ball and considers the process of ascending them as the second step reaches her eyeline. Pulling mana to her legs she almost overshoots as she underestimates her own strength, easing back on the mana she realizes she can make the jump quite easily, even without the aid of her magic. A fact that gives the former soldier a rather indulgent self congratulatory boost of satisfaction. All that exercise seems to keep paying dividends.

Hopping up the last step and putting the plastic ball into her pouch, Tanya pauses and looks down at the ball. Hadn't she just put this down? Her confused pondering is interrupted by the child as she looks over her high table next to a window, face incredulous. Waddling over, Tanya pulls mana into her legs again and makes the significantly larger jump up to the bar-style high chair, easily making the distance.

Giving an involuntary squeak as she lands, Tanya turns and looks across the table, her eyes barely peeking over the wooden ledge. Drat. Clambering up the final gap onto the table Tanya wishes for a moment she could, just once, be tall enough for stuff like this to not be a problem. Straightening herself up and setting down her plastic ball, she takes a step forward, holding out an arm for a handshake to the increasingly baffled human child opposite her.

"Good morning, my name is Tanya Degurechaff. It's a pleasure to meet you."