Chương 8: 8-Learn

Feeding more of her mana into the… purple variant of the magic that's settled in that same space within her. Tanya watches as it burns her natural magic like fuel, growing larger in the process, and trying to slip her control. Thankfully this mana is significantly more like what she's used to, using a little will and a variant of her old training she clamps down, slaving that directionless potential and holding it still.

Feeding it the last of her natural mana she watches it push against her control and considers how similar, yet different, this expression of magic is to its counterpart in Germania. At first she'd thought it was her old mana, but after remembering Caretaker's description of 'type' energy and a bit of testing she's come to the conclusion this is likely 'Psychic' type energy. Which does make a certain amount of sense considering what she was trying to do.

Thus, although it's very similar to the magic she knew, Tanya's found a few key differences. For one… Tanya mentally 'wraps' the mana around a plastic ball and applies a modified force vector equation, causing the ball to leap from her grip and smack against the underside of the table she's underneath. It's much easier to use. Picking up the ball, Tanya adjusts the force value in her simplified vector equation.

Without the help of an orb she has to make her formulas as simple as possible, which means no complicated derivatives to solve for weight or an intuitive coordinate system. Meaning without an orb she's reduced to guess, check, and a lot of thrown balls. Tanya shudders. She's been reduced to trigonometry. The ball gently twitches as Tanya feeds increasing amounts of mana to the force vector until she gets a feel for the appropriate values in the equation.

Silver linings, the fact it's even possible to express her mana externally in its raw form like this is just another one of those benefits native to this world. A benefit that has her mind buzzing with possibilities. Simply put, a good portion of the math her orb did in Germania was defining scope of work. Meaning she had to describe –in exacting mathematical detail– what she wanted her orb to be affecting. For example, if she'd wanted to fly, the first step is to identify where 'she' ends.

Because while Tanya wants to keep hold of her gun, she doesn't want to be carrying around a few inches of topsoil every time she takes off. Thus there has to be complicated math bracketing the exact physical properties of the material making up both herself and her kit. Then of course the exceptions if she were to say: fly into a tree, or touch another human being among other things.

The ability to just tell her mana all the things obvious to a person with eyes and a functioning brain cuts down calculation time by several orders of magnitude. Setting down the training aid, Tanya iterates the equation a few times, making the ball hop up and down like a pop-toy. Unfortunately, unless she figures out an easier equation to control vectoring the objects in her grip, fine control still remains extremely difficult at speed.

Which means flight is simply non viable without a great deal of effort, perhaps even impossible. Which is a- The exhilaration of flight slowly giving way to grim focus after each engagement. Magic flares up in her core, chasing away the memory. It's a shame. Plus she's seen none of her caretakers flying about and some sense within tells her instinctively they're stronger than her, so there's probably something stopping it from being viable that Tanya can't see.

Popping the ball to different heights in a simple rhythm, Tanya stares into the middle distance as she thinks. Caretaker did mention something about 'flying' type energy, perhaps if she can get a sample of tha-"Oh there you are!" Says Caretaker from behind. The former soldier does not stiffen at the sound before standing up and turning around, her head almost brushing the underside of the table.

"Yes Caretaker?" Tanya asks mildly.

"What are you doing under there Dea-" She asks, but cuts herself off seeing the ball behind Tanya, still giving off wisps of purple energy.

"You've figured out Psychic!" She cheers. Tanya nods and steps aside with an internal sigh. It's not that she was hiding this new skill, mostly because she's near certain she can guess what would happen if she told anyone. Though not a perfectly accurate prediction, most likely outcomes boil down to repeated hugs and congratulations, intensity and length dependant on how remarkable everyone considers it. No, the reason Tanya decided to avoid telling anyone is simple. It's not finished.

Sure, she can move a plastic ball with her mind, but it's so sloppy. She can't even hold something still long enough to get a good look at it, or pick up a glass of water without spilling. Tanya had planned on revealing the skill when it became something she considers worthy of note.

"Can I see? Please?" Caretaker asks breathlessly, somehow mushing her significantly larger body under the table to be closer. With another internal sigh, Tanya nods.

"Yes Caretaker." With that she holds out an arm, furrows her brow slightly, and eyeballs the distance between her outstretched arm and the ball on the floor. Then translates the relative positions of the two points to the arcseconds and force required to create a parabola through 3D space.

Feeding her guesstimates into a simple equation, she evaluates the force vector then, wrapping her mana around the ball, tries to ping it through a gap barely larger than the ball itself between the top of her head and the table then into her grip. Unfortunately she'd misjudged the distance on the relative X axis, forcing Tanya to move her arm left slightly for the ball, the act evoking a wince. Sloppiness like that is why she'd wanted to avoid showing the skill until it was ready!

The fact that correction was necessary at all is why she wanted to wait! Further self recrimination for that poor showing is cut off as Caretaker surges forward, somehow compressing her bulk underneath the table even further to press Tanya into the wall, wrapping her in a hug.

"You're incredible! I thought I'd felt Psychic type energy a few days ago, but I thought it was Happiny!" She says voice slightly muffled, tone indicating the Happiny who's currently sleeping. Caretaker pulls back and stops pressing Tanya against the wall, then leans right back in commiseratingly.

"Her father was a clefable, so I thought she'd started to express her egg move." She says in a hushed voice. Tanya blinks consideringly. She knows about egg moves from one of the earlier lessons on biology from Caretaker, though she was not aware her own avenue of research was one of those 'egg' moves. With this new knowledge there is a good chance that her own biological father was the same species. Tanya blinks.

The idea that how she'd directed her experimentation might have been influenced by genetic factors, that some part of her mind is potentially being influenced by her body without her knowledge is… strange. Looking around Caretaker's bulk at all her sisters, Tanya realizes something else she'd never really considered; if they're not clones her siblings aren't actually related to each other by blood.

The clone theory started on shaky ground and has only become less tenuous as time goes on, therefore they must be made the… traditional way and donated to the nursery to be raised communally. On the other hand she finds it unlikely a Chasney would willingly give up their egg, considering what she knows about her species. So where do the eggs come from? While she's on this train of logic, Tanya has to assume there are male Chansey she's not seeing to do the… other half. Like the male husbands to the human nurses.

The question is where? Turning back to Caretaker, Tanya tilts her head questioningly as she tucks her ball into her pouch.

"Where do all the eggs come from anyways?" At Tanya's words Caretaker startles and stares at her, pink face reddening.

"Well I thought Happiny was accidentally using gravity!" She almost shouts, bumping her head as she quickly gets up from under the table and looks away. Tanya blinks, confused.

"Did y-""Have you tried using Gravity?" She interrupts, almost desperately.

"If you've already gotten the Psychic Energy you're already halfway there!" Tanya stares for a moment longer, before a combination of the genuinely intriguing question and the fact Caretaker's obviously unwilling to answer has her switch trains of thought.

"Gravity?" Caretaker gives a relieved sigh and launches into an exhaustive explanation on how the 'move' gravity works as she understands it. But as Tanya listens with rapt attention and starts mentally pulling together a rather simple looking spell to replicate the effect she mentally makes a note to bring up the egg question later. —-- –_– —--"Alright everyone I'm going to play the recording again! Try to keep the sounds in your mind!"

Matron cheers as she rewinds a futuristic looking cassette in an appropriately themed boombox. The boombox proves its futuristic bent as the sound doesn't crackle or stutter as it starts again, Matron helpfully pointing a ruler to the corresponding hiragana character on the blackboard.

"a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa shi su se so ta chi…" The speaker spits out, giving the same string of characters as the last fifteen times. Looking around and referencing almost completely faded memories, Tanya notes an odd difference from her sisters and human children trying to learn to write. Where humans would be noisy, parroting the recording to learn the sounds quicker, here the room is dead silent, just the sound of wood tapping on blackboard and a recorded voice.

Which does make sense, considering no one in the room can actually say the syllables. Instead it's a memorization game, remembering what sound matches each syllable then assembling the word internally, all without uttering even a single sound. Getting to the end of the list, the recording begins to slowly say the words for simple objects as Matron taps the corresponding symbol below a drawn picture. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

If only to have something to do, Tanya follows along, watching her sisters out the corners of her eyes for their reactions, ranging from perfect focus, to confusion, to nearly asleep. They've been heading to this classroom more and more often over the past few weeks with lessons ranging from reading, basic arithmetic, and the in's and out's of the human world. There was even a day devoted to 'foreign' cultures.

Seeing a picture of a raised european style toilet be described in terms of an obstacle to navigate was an… interesting experience. Tanya had pretended to 'learn' to read pretty quickly, if only because she doesn't have the patience to pretend to not understand what fruit she's looking at the fifteenth time someone tried to 'teach' her. But despite having shown proficiency in the material over two weeks ago, they've not advanced her own schooling ahead of her sisters. Which, on one hand, she doesn't really mind.

She's got over a year to learn everything needed for Nursing school. One year, three months, and twelve days to be precise. Apparently it's so there can be a few proctored one-on-one meetings to make sure, 'you're the right fit for each other.' After which the human will be allowed to come and go as they please before both head off to school together. Thus, as long as she stays on –or ahead– of the lesson plan Tanya's in no hurry.

On the other hand, something grinds against the fact that this time spent is time wasted even if there's no looming danger or deadline. So, despite reassuring herself, something deep inside fights against this idleness. Finishing the 'lecture' section of the class, Matron and the two caretakers who'd remained behind for this class hand a small stack of papers to three happiny in the crowd, and without instruction every happiny is holding a page in less than a minute.

Though a few pairs have to be gently discouraged as they keep passing their pages between each other. Glancing down at the page, Tanya scans over and solves the basic worksheet. A simple word written in hiragana and a multiple choice of four pictures to choose the matching image. Picking up the crayon next to her, Tanya fills in the fifteen questions then looks up to see Matron scanning to ensure everyone's gotten a sheet.

"Alright everyone! Don't start yet!" She calls out, gesturing to the far wall where two caretakers who'd remained behind to proctor the class are wheeling out an old fashioned light table. Matron pulls down a projector screen as one of the two caretakers hop up onto a stepping stool while the other turns on the light table.

"Because this isn't just a normal worksheet! It's a test!" She cheers, then waves her arms frantically as she sees faces in the sitting crowd turn anxious.

"Don't worry! You can take it as many times as you want! You can't fail!" The light table finishes warming up and Chansey in a yellow cap gives a serious nod. Matron returns the motion before she continues.

"But when you do pass there's a reward at the end!" She grins, waving at the screen as Chansey slaps down a cellophane sheet, sending the picture of a library on the screen.

"When enough of you all pass we're going to start having trips to the Joy Compound Library!" Matron shouts, gesturing at the image like it's the most amazing thing in the entire world. Tanya's sisters certainly react as such, but she's been around them long enough to recognize when they're just excited because everyone else is. Not Tanya though, because she looks at that shadow of a cellophane sheet with fascinated focus.

Not just because of the books, meaning she'll no longer be limited to the speed or scope of lessons meant for her sisters, who are significantly younger. No, her attentions are mainly drawn to the background of the frame, where there's the beige plastic of several computer terminals. Books are useful, and Tanya doubts any of the books pertaining to nursing would be out of date, but online resources would be invaluable.

Not just for more information on Tanya's future profession, but also access to another data point on the world. One where the information hasn't been filtered though Caretaker, as useful a resource she's been. Plus it's been a literal lifetime since she'd been on the internet, she kinda misses it. Though if the…

girth of the monitor's screen is any indication, either the computers are ancient and the facility poorly funded, the image is old, or the technology is significantly more underdeveloped than when she'd last seen it. But considering the other technologies she's seen in her time here. it seems more likely they're as modern as can be expected for a library, just old by Tanya's standards. Meaning the internet could possibly be similar to how she remembers it as a teenager back in Japan. Honestly?

She's not entirely against that. Matron claps a few times, quieting the slightly confused cheers.

"So! Now you've seen your treat! So work hard and work together and you'll be checking out your own bedtime stories in no time!" That seems to make her sisters realize the stakes of the offer more than anything amusingly. Coinciding how a few jolt thoughtfully and look down to the paper with renewed focus. At the instruction to begin the test, Tanya looks back down to her solved sheet, thinking. Because it doesn't matter if she passes early, since some unknown ratio of her siblings do the same.

Meaning she's capped until her sisters catch up again, a fact that brings back that conflicting sensation of neutrality and fire. But as she looks around aimlessly, her gaze settles on Happiny, one of her less… academically inclined sisters. Tanya watches her stare with confused focus at the hiragana and pictures beneath. She's holding the page upside down. Tanya blinks, holding that image in her mind as she allows her gaze to drift back to her own page, lest the caretakers suspect her of cheating.

Reading is integral to being a nurse. It's the gateway to learning everything else required for any profession. Failing at the first step means being held back, falling behind as everyone else moves forward. She stares down at her completed worksheet, then to all the sisters who might also be struggling with this skill, so important to everything in both their futures. Alongside the fact their learning speed is directly gating Tanya from the internet. She's got a plan. —-- –_– —--"Alright, try again."

Big Sis says patently. Happiny nods and looks back down to Matron's storybook, sounding out the squiggles to human speak in her head, then scrunching her face as she tries to figure out what word that series of noises make in their weird language. Then, for just a moment; she loses concentration and the sounds slip from her mind. And she's staring at squiggles again. Giving a long groan, Happiny laments yet another failed attempt.

"Again." Scrunching her eyes shut, Happiny shakes her head as frustration builds. When Big Sis said she'd wanted to play a game, she'd been so excited! But they've been at this forever! She wants to play a different game! But as all those emotions well up in an unpleasant stinging wave, like when she'd been sick and thrown up all over her pillow, Happiny gives a surprised chirp as she feels something press lightly against her back.

Looking up, she sees Big Sis staring down at her with that ever changing serious expression. To anyone else her sister's expression is as unchanging as one of the pictures in the book in front of them. But all her sisters know better, because for Big Sis it's all in the details. Once she figured that out her sister became incredibly easy to read. And right now, as Happiny locks eyes, she sees nothing but patience and gentle affection.

A sight that makes love bloom in her chest, a warm and flowing feeling that makes her want to give someone a hug. But before she can, Big Sis interrupts.

"Reading is a skill that's invaluable for your place in society, the faster you learn the more practice you get for Nursing School." She pats Happiny's back and gestures to the book.

"Therefore, learning to read is the best option to contribute the most to the workforce. Again, please." Happiny blinks. She understood almost none of that. But looking at Big Sis's gentle – focused – eyes, she knows what the complicated words mean.

"Love you too." She says, almost reflexively, before ignoring how the arm pressed against her back twitches and focuses on the squiggles again. As she stares at the lines Happiny leans lightly against her sister, slowly picking apart the sounds in her head. Then, after a few more moments of staring, Happiny blinks and tilts her head consideringly.

"River?" She half asks. Big Sis points to a squiggle after the word.

"And this?" Happiny blinks, confused, until the feeling turns to indignation as she recognizes the squiggle!

"That's the location marker! That's not a word!" She squeaks angrily! Because it's not a word! It's not anything! It's just more human silliness making their language more complicated than it needs to be! Big Sis exhales slightly, her version of laughing, and Happiny can see her nod out the corner of her eye as she continues.

"Good." Happiny sighs, then looks back to the mess of squiggles to figure out what she'd misse- Wait. Her pink head jolts up.

"I did it?" She asks incredulously. Big Sis nods seriously, but her eyes show amused pride. Happiny jumps up! Bouncing back and forth giggling in celebration! She did it! Wrapping Big Sis in a big hug, she plops down next to the book and focuses on the squ- words again.

"Ok! Next word!" She points to the word to the right of the text, then switches to the word on the left at her sister's expression, nodding seriously at the gentle reminder of 'right to left.' She'll figure this out. She'll become the best reader ever! Happiny starts to rock back and forth in excitement, before realizing that moving her head blurs the characters and holds herself still to start mentally picking apart the next word! Then she'll teach it to everyone else!